(Bloomberg) — Charles Schwab Corp. would like to give its retail investors more opportunities to take stakes in private companies as a growing number of firms become industry giants before going public, Chief Executive Officer Rick Wurster said.
“There’s a lot more private companies today than there used to be, and fewer public companies, and so I do think it makes sense to think about providing direct access to retail investors to private companies,” Wurster said in a Bloomberg Television interview Wednesday. “And that’s something we’re looking at and thinking about how we participate in.”
Wurster cited financial-technology company Stripe Inc. and artificial-intelligence firm OpenAI as “billion-dollar companies” that retail investors should have the opportunity to invest in. Employees of such enterprises “would love liquidity for their stock positions” as well, he said.
“We would love to see retail investors be able to participate in the growth of private companies in our country,” Wurster said.
Earlier this year, Schwab rolled out an alternative-investment platform available to eligible retail clients with more than $5 million in household assets. The foray gives investors access to “a curated shelf” of third-party alternative-investment funds in asset classes including private equity, hedge funds, private credit and real estate, the firm said at the time.
More broadly, the Westlake, Texas-based company has benefited from increased investment interest from its retail customers, saying earlier this month that retail assets and households at Schwab have increased fourfold since 2017. The firm, which is also a bank, said in July that total client assets climbed to $10.76 trillion in the second quarter, up 14% from a year earlier.
Schwab also said this month that it would add 16 branches and expand or move 25 existing retail locations to better serve customers.
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