Charles Schwab Corp/The – Lobbying Governance & Transparency

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Lobbying Governance

Overall Assessment	Analysis	Score
Moderate	Charles Schwab’s lobbying governance is clearly structured at the organizational level, with its Office of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs that "executes our lobbying activities with oversight by the Corporate General Counsel and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board of Directors" and provides "quarterly reports on pending legislative and regulatory policy issues of significance to the company" to the Risk Committee. When it comes to climate-specific lobbying, the company reports that "we engage with trade associations to provide feedback on their comment letters on regulatory rule proposals related to climate," and that "our ESG team is engaged to help ensure consistency with our overall business strategy." While this demonstrates a mechanism to align indirect climate advocacy with corporate strategy, we found no publicly disclosed policy governing climate lobbying, no process for reviewing or managing direct climate lobbying activities, no board-level or named individual oversight of climate-focused advocacy, and the company confirms "No, and we do not plan to have one in the next two years." View Sources	C

Overall Assessment

Analysis

Score

Moderate

Charles Schwab’s lobbying governance is clearly structured at the organizational level, with its Office of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs that "executes our lobbying activities with oversight by the Corporate General Counsel and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board of Directors" and provides "quarterly reports on pending legislative and regulatory policy issues of significance to the company" to the Risk Committee. When it comes to climate-specific lobbying, the company reports that "we engage with trade associations to provide feedback on their comment letters on regulatory rule proposals related to climate," and that "our ESG team is engaged to help ensure consistency with our overall business strategy." While this demonstrates a mechanism to align indirect climate advocacy with corporate strategy, we found no publicly disclosed policy governing climate lobbying, no process for reviewing or managing direct climate lobbying activities, no board-level or named individual oversight of climate-focused advocacy, and the company confirms "No, and we do not plan to have one in the next two years."

View Sources

Lobbying Transparency

Overall Assessment	Analysis	Score
Limited	Charles Schwab Corp. provides only limited transparency on climate-related lobbying. It explains the internal structure guiding its advocacy, noting that its Office of Legislative and Regulatory Affairs "executes our lobbying activities with oversight by the Corporate General Counsel and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of the Board of Directors," and it references mechanisms such as direct engagement with policymakers and the submission of comment letters. However, the disclosure does not identify any specific climate or energy transition policies, laws or regulations it has tried to influence, nor does it name the governmental bodies or individual officials it targets—describing them only as "policy leaders on both sides of the aisle." The company likewise offers no clear statement of the climate-policy outcomes it seeks, mentioning only that it "proactively encourages legislation and regulations that benefit our clients and individual investors generally." As a result, the reader is left without meaningful detail on which climate issues the firm engages on, how it pursues them, or what changes it is advocating.	D