Hyderabad: US-based financial services giant Charles Schwab has opened its first global technology capability centre in the world, Schwab India, in Hyderabad with a 3.5 lakh sq ft facility that will support its global operations. The facility, which currently has a headcount of around 200, will focus on technology development, engineering and operational capabilities.The firm plans to grow its Hyderabad facility workforce to around 500 by the end of the year and around 2,000 employees by the end of 2027, while moving select technology work currently handled by contractors in India into its in-house operations, Pradeep Menon, country head and managing director, Schwab India, said at the formal inauguration of the facility on Wednesday.Menon said Schwab assessed several technology hubs in India, including Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Gurgaon, before zeroing in on Hyderabad. He said three factors worked in the city’s favour: a mature capability-centre ecosystem, modern infrastructure and access to deep technology talent developed over decades.Pointing out that the first few months have been largely focused on leadership recruitment, Menon said Schwab has begun hiring senior leaders and engineers across broker-dealer modernisation, data, AI and cloud computing. The initial phase would be led by technology streams because they offered the easiest entry point for the company, he added.Christopher Wyse, managing director and chief corporate affairs officer, Charles Schwab, said the centre will eventually support the tech requirements of the business’s three main areas in the US — retail, advisory services and workplace. Wyse said the Hyderabad investment would strengthen Schwab’s ability to serve 48 million account holders and support 30,000 employees who rely on its technology platforms.IT and industries minister D Sridhar Babu, who inaugurated the centre, said Hyderabad was moving beyond shared services to build platforms that power global trading and brokerage. He said the city hosts nine of the world’s top 10 brokerage and trading institutions, representing about $40 trillion in assets under management, and more than 475 global capability centres, and aims to become a global capital markets and wealthtech hub.“Mumbai is India’s trading and brokerage capital,” he said. “But Hyderabad is increasingly building the technology that powers trading and brokerage for the world.” Sridhar Babu said Charles Schwab joins a financial technology cluster including Deutsche Börse, Vanguard, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, State Street, Wells Fargo, UBS and Invesco.
