Charles Schwab

Charles Schwab, a discount brokerage company, plans to launch a new service to allow customers to invest directly in foreign stock markets using local currencies.

Related services are already offered by other brokerages including E*Trade, Fidelity, TD Ameritrade and Zecco.

"The U.S. is becoming less important with the overall asset mix people are thinking about," says Schwab's Brian McDonald. Investors are "looking to grow global trading, and we want to make sure we're right there with them."

A largest discount brokerage and fund company Charles Schwab Corp will pay $118.9 million in fines to settle regulatory charges that it hid from investors the mortgage-related risks in a seemingly safe, multibillion-dollar bond mutual fund. This week the US Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlement and filed a civil lawsuit charging two Schwab executives, Kimon Daifotis and Randall Merk, with violating securities fraud laws over how the Schwab YieldPlus fund was marketed.

 Charles Schwab today released a series of financial planning and investing tips to help individual investors better manage their finances and investing plans as global markets rebound and the economy begins to recover. 

 Charles Schwab today released a list of tips to help self-directed investors better manage their approach to trading as people return to the market amidst increased trading volumes.