Continuing to roll out products around that platform, SSCM introduced in mid-April the Passive Indication Network, a continuous matching network for institutional investors that allows them to enter buy and sell prices for stocks and remain anonymous as their passive indications are automatically matched against retail and institutional order flow. "They can see what executes and what doesn't," explains Penney, without incurring market impact.
Of course, if Schwab can't provide secure transactions, none of its growth initiatives will matter. With the number of virus attacks increasing and the amount of spam exploding, Penney says security has become an important concern. According to the CIO, Schwab is working with a number of small companies to implement security solutions.
And, though the economy is in a growth mode, Penney is always looking for cost savings. Last July, Schwab moved its Schwab.com Web servers from IBM P series machines running AIX to Intel/Linux machines. "Commodity hardware kind of wins out," says Penney, who says he will continue to move existing Unix applications onto cheaper Intel boxes running Linux or Windows. "I do have a belief in saving money. So any time I can see a way to get off proprietary hardware and move to Intel-compatible hardware, I'm interested, and that's what we've been doing," he says.
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