Charles Schwab is losing a prominent markets analyst as the discount broker starts cutting 600 jobs

REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage

Walt Bettinger, the chief executive of Charles Schwab.

• Brad Sorensen, a managing director in Charles Schwab's market research unit, has left the firm, Business Insider has learned. Sorensen's commentary on the markets was frequently quoted in the financial press.
• His exit comes as the brokerage plans to slash some 600 jobs and is set to close in 2020 on a $1.8 billion acquisition of USAA's brokerage and wealth management business.
• In July, as Business Insider first reported, two key executives left Schwab as part of an organizational restructuring. The firm has not provided an update on that overhaul.
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Brad Sorensen, a managing director for market and sector analysis in Charles Schwab's center for financial research, has left the firm, Business Insider has learned, as the discount brokerage cuts costs and hundreds of jobs across levels, internal organizations, and locations.

His exit comes as the brokerage plans to slash some 600 jobs and is set to make moves further into financial advice with its $1.8 billion buy of USAA's brokerage and managed accounts.

In July, as Business Insider first reported, two key executives in investor services and marketing left Schwab as part of an organizational restructuring. The firm has not provided an update on that overhaul.

Read more: Charles Schwab's retail head and marketing chief are out - and the firm's still figuring out what's next

A spokeswoman for the firm, Mayura Hooper, declined to comment on personnel matters. Multiple requests for comment to Sorensen were not returned. His Charles Schwab biography page appears no longer active. He had published research as recently as Sept. 13.

Sorensen, who was based in Colorado, joined the firm in 2004, according to industry records, and was previously with AMG Guaranty Trust as a senior analyst. His commentary on the markets was frequently quoted in the financial press.

The company has plans to lay off around 600 staffers, or 3% of its current workforce, to help manage expenses and navigate a "more challenging" operating environment, according to a statement from Schwab on Monday. Its $1.8 billion acquisition of USAA's brokerage business is set to close next year, handing Schwab both brokerage and managed accounts.

Read more: Rivals E-Trade and TD Ameritrade had CEO shakeups within weeks of each other. The departures come as competition ratchets up among e-brokers.

Those 600 job cuts were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

An August rate cut from the Federal Reserve to already historically low US interest rates is also piling pressure on Schwab, which rakes in a portion of its revenue from interest earned on client cash that is sitting in sweep accounts.

The firm, based in San Francisco, oversaw some $3.7 trillion in client assets at the end of August. That's a 5% increase from the same time last year.

The lastest move and the wider job cuts also come on the heels of revelations of a pair of closures overseas.

The company is closing its Singapore and Australia offices, it had confirmed to Business Insider earlier this month. The firm's Singapore office is set to close at the end of this year, and its website is already informing investors of the change. The Australia office would no longer provide services as of Sept. 13.

The Singapore closure was first reported by Reuters and the news website finews.asia, and the Australian publication Financial Standard first reported the Australian closure. Half a dozen people were employed in the Singapore office, Reuters has reported, citing an unnamed source.

Those offices are relatively small in terms of Schwab's overall business, but their shuttering marked a hasty retreat from locations where Schwab had only been active for a few years.

Charles Schwab's former executive vice president of investor services, Terri Kallsen, had said on a call with investors in February that Schwab likely would not do much more expanding overseas, citing regulatory burdens. Kallsen was one of the pair of executive departures in July that were first reported by Business Insider.

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