Schwab’s $7 Trillion Empire Built on Low Rates Is Showing Cracks

On the surface, Charles Schwab Corp.being swept up in the worst US banking crisis since 2008 makes little sense.

The firm, a half-century mainstay in the brokerage industry, isn’t overexposed to crypto like Silvergate Capital and Signature Bank, nor to startups and venture capital, which felled Silicon Valley Bank. Fewer than 20% of Schwab’s depositors exceed the FDIC’s $250,000 insurance cap, compared with about 90% at SVB. And with 34 million accounts, a phalanx of financial advisers and more than $7 trillion of assets across all of its businesses, it towers over regional institutions.

Yet the ...