Charles Schwab Corporation just announced it is transferring the listing of its common stock to NYSE from Nasdaq on 5 March, using its current symbol, SCHW.

The press release quotes Schwab CEO Walt Bettinger: “Today, the NYSE is the listing home to so many household names in financial services, joining them will place us in a natural comparative set.” Makes sense. The company is a leading provider of financial services for individual investors, independent investment advisors and employers. Leaders in financial services (and just about every other field) list with us.

The release also says Schwab has more than 300 offices and 7.7 million client brokerage accounts, 1.5 million corporate retirement plan participants, 722,000 banking accounts, and $1.42 trillion in client assets. That’s real size.

Me, for a long time I’ve liked their ads, particularly the simple, direct, open, conversational, human-voice quality of the Talk to Chuck campaign. So to Schwab, I say welcome to the Big Board, happy to have you join us. Looking forward to talking to Chuck.

Today is International Corporate Philanthropy Day, and President Obama has written a note in support of the initiative. There’s a significant celebration of the day taking place, both in form and substance.

The fun part: members of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) rang today’s NYSE Opening Bell (disclosure: NYSE Euronext is a member of this good organization).

I asked my colleague Steven Wheeler, our director of Corporate Giving, Archives and Education, for his take on this morning’s event:

Today’s Opening Bell event was an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the ways in which businesses can make a difference in their communities around the globe.

Corporate-giving officers from eight CECP member companies were present to highlight innovative corporate philanthropy programs and activities that are helping to make the world a better place. For instance,

· ITT Corporation is working to bring clean water and sanitation to communities in emerging countries.

· General Mills has launched a joint venture with CARE to support the education and economic development of women in Malawi.

· The Intel Education Initiative uses technology to improve teaching and learning, and aims to promote mathematics, science, and engineering education.

· Bloomberg enables its employees to double the impact of their own contributions of dollars and volunteer time to charitable through its Employee Matching and Dollars for Your Hours programs.

A fuller description of these initiatives and many more can be found at the CECP website.

Thanks, Steve. There’s more — a part-fun, part-substantive part: CECP members are holding a tweet-up, announced here, in connection with their big conference today. Companies are tweeting what they’re doing to mark the day.

And of course, a substantive part, among other programs taking place today: the CECP is releasing a new report,

“Measuring the Value of Corporate Philanthropy: Social impact, business benefits, and investor returns,” that assesses current practices and measurement trends in corporate philanthropy. This report, which focuses on three primary conversations — between giving practitioners and grantees, between giving practitioners and the CEO, and between the CEO and investor community — clarifies the demands for evidence of the social and business benefits of corporate giving and identifies the most promising steps forward for practitioners.

That sounds like an interesting approach — measurement would go a long way toward informing those conversations and the decisions that result from them.

So props to the CECP for doing a good job of highlighting and advancing this important work today. After all, you’ve really gotta work to get on the public radar, because you’re competing for public mindshare, and at this time of year in particular, the public’s mind tends to wander toward, well, other things.

Here’s something I didn’t know: from India’s Business Standard yesterday –

Indian ADRs on NYSE Euronext trade at 10% premium

The bonding between Indian companies and NYSE Euronext has got further reinforced with the American Depository Receipts (ADRs) of these companies listed on the global stock exchange commanding an excellent average premium of 10.2 per cent over their underlying ordinary shares in the domestic market in 2009, an exchange release said.

Ten out of 13 Indian companies listed on NYSE Euronext platform trade in the form of ADRs on NYSE Euronext markets. These companies include Dr. Reddy’s, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL), Patni Computer Systems, Mahindra Satyam, Sterlite Industries, Tata Communications, Tata Motors and Wipro.

The other three companies – Genpact, WNS and Yatra Capital – are traded in the form of ordinary shares. The combined market capitalization of all 13 Indian companies listed on NYSE Euronext as of December 31, 2009 was at $111 billion, a gain of $57 billion over prior year.

Access to various strata of investors at the global level provided an unbeatable edge for these ADRs enabling these companies to set new benchmarks for others to follow. The premium growth trail continued to pick up year after year, over the last three years. From 5.1 per cent of average premium in 2007, they together scaled to 6.1 per cent the next year, only to take a leap to 10.2 per cent of average premium in 2009.

Prominent among the gainers was, the US-dollar denominated ADRs of HDFC Bank, listed on NYSE, gained 82.2 per cent, compared to 70.4 per cent gain in their underlying rupee-denominated shares during the year. ADRs of Dr Reddy’s posted a gain of 147 per cent against 143.5 per cent in its underlying shares. India’s second largest bank, ICICI Bank ADRs also edged above its underlying.

“NYSE Euronext has provided us with a leading presence and outstanding visibility in the global markets, and we look forward to celebrating our 10th anniversary of NYSE listing in October 2010. Besides enhancing our brand in key regions, the NYSE listing has given us access to a more diverse base of global investors to meet our growing capital needs,” said Mr. Suresh Senapaty, Chief Financial Officer, Wipro Limited. “And since IFRS is now accepted in the U.S., our listing and compliance requirements have been simplified, saving us considerable time and money.”

Stock premium, enhanced brand, simplified listing and compliance requirements, lower costs — it adds up to a compelling story for why these Indian issues have chosen to list here.

Welcome to Wednesday, folks. Three of the many important things that happened on this date in history (hat tip: New York Times): industrialist Thomas Watson, who built IBM, was born on this date in 1874; President Nixon embarked on his historic trip to China on this date in 1972; and Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day was born 38 years ago today. There’s a lot more on the first two items at the Times link; the third might not be in the same category, but hey, I have “American Idiot” on my mp3, not old Richard Nixon speeches. There’s a time and place for everything, right?

…will be the ones that aren’t there. They’re the commercials that Pepsi is not running. No matter whether you watch the Super Bowl for the game or the ads or ignore the whole thing, you have to give props to Pepsi. The company has taken the millions it otherwise would have spent on Super Bowl commercials and plowed the money into a community program, the Pepsi Refresh Project. And I mean community in two senses of the word: the projects are designed to help neighborhoods and the larger world around us, and they’re initiated by the online community pitching and voting on their proposals on the project’s Web site.

The project allows people to suggest and vote on projects for Pepsi to fund to help the community. Grants are made for projects at levels from $5,000 to $250,000, Look at the diversity and originality of the ideas on the current 10 most popular ideas at the $5,000 level: ship Girl Scout cookies to troops overseas; help the elderly take care of their pets; provide a baby-care package to help expectant parents in need; a store and classroom deveoote to homemade goods; create a classroom science lab of i-Pod Touch units; an all-girl club that promotes self esteem in an impoverished area; improve the conditions in a boys group home; lead a cross-country bike trip and build houses along the way; recycle t-shirts into shopping bags to raise money for rescued animals; and clean up the littered streets of Nashvile with student lead help.

Here is Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi talking about the program during her visit to New York Stock Exchange last week, on Bloomberg TV (hey Bloomberg, how about an embed button?) and on CNBC. The concept is so — well, fresh — that it seems like the interviewers are struggling a bit to to get it.

In one stroke, Pepsi uses its marketing dollars to improve the planet a bit, engage its customers and the general public, gain lots of reputational benefit, and I’m sure, provide a source of great pride and engagement for its employees.

Super Bowl commercials can be clever. Or not. Marketers are always talking about the difficulty of making their message stand out above the noise and clutter of today’s media saturation. What could be more clever, farther apart from the crowd, than this idea? Thanks, Pepsi, for showing us how it’s done.

In the embedded video, my colleague Scott Cutler talks with TheDeal.com about the prospects for initial public offerings in the new year. A couple/three takeaways:

– Today’s much lower market volatility makes for a more stable environment in which to go public; the VIX (index of volatility) has dropped from 85 a year ago to 25 or less today.

– The trend among companies to focus more on core businesses could result in more spinoffs of non-core units.

– Although today is far from a “free-for-all” for venture-capital-backed, growth-oriented companies to go public, we’ve come a long way since 2008, when only two such companies did so. Such companies going public is becoming the trend rather than the exception.

Happy 2010, my friends.

From Scott Cutler:

What a difference six months makes! Back in June, who would have thought that the equity markets would have rebounded so strongly and that we would have seen not only record amounts of capital being raised in the follow-on market but also the IPO market having staged an impressive resurgence. After only 15 transactions in the first 6 months in the U.S., the IPO market witnessed a dramatic turnaround, finishing the year with 65 transactions, raising over $27 billion. We are proud that the NYSE listed 36 of these IPOs, raising nearly $19 billion in proceeds. From our perspective, the market was generally open to companies across industry sectors; however, a few sectors saw repeat issuers such as technology, general industrial, consumer services and energy. While the average size of the IPO was somewhat larger than in prior years, it has started to trend down as smaller growth companies are more broadly able to access the market.

The 2010 pipeline seems to be materializing nicely (we have seen 79 new IPO filings since August) and while the IPO market has seen some weakness over the past few weeks, I am confident that there will be broad interest for high quality IPOs next year. In the conversations we have had with buy-side accounts, it appears that there will be increased interest in smaller growth stories in sectors such as technology, consumer and biotech and we also expect to see a host of new issuance activity in clean technology and internet / digital media. Certainly, the market will remain robust in China as its economy continues to see strong growth with companies seeking capital.

At NYSE Euronext, we have continued to fight vigorously on behalf of our clients, including speaking out against increased foreign tax regulation, reduction of SOX burden and exploring ways to stimulate IPO activity with the private equity and venture communities, all of which help contribute to innovation and job creation. While much has been made over the U.S. IPO market structure, we firmly believe that the market fundamentally works and will continue to be the place to facilitate the best growth capital in the world.

Companies large and small continue to choose NYSE Euronext as their listing partner for many reasons including:
- Superior platform for IPO execution and trading support post-IPO;
- Only market with market makers accountable to issuers to provide liquidity; and
- Network among leading companies to drive business growth.

We look forward to welcoming many more companies into the family in 2010 and encourage you to explore joining the world’s premiere network of leading companies.

Earlier today, my colleague Scott Cutler, our head of listings for the Americas (and occasional contributor to Exchanges), spoke with CNBC about whether the recent momentum in initial public offerings has legs for 2010.

From Scott Cutler: A year ago, all expectations were for a quiet year on the capital raising front. And yet, as we head into the final weeks of 2009, we expect another 8 IPOs bringing the total to nearly 80 newly public companies for the year in the U.S. Over $19 billion has been raised so far just on NYSE Euronext’s US markets with a total of 43 IPOs. Not only have companies on NYSE Euronext’s US markets raised more in dollar proceeds, but, for the first time, we are scheduled to attract more IPO transactions from operating companies than any other US market by year end. And, all of this is on top of the record $200 billion raised in secondaries at the NYSE.

The new issuance market in 2009 was truly global, with the top exchanges being Hong Kong, NYSE, Shanghai, Shenzen, Brazil, and then Nasdaq, with the LSE as a distant 9th in capital raising among world exchanges. Starting with Mead Johnson in February and continuing with a series of technology IPOs in SolarWinds, Digital Globe, Rosetta Stone, then through some brand names such as Hyatt, Dollar General and Dole, and finally, the largest global IPO of the year with Banco Santander Brasil –the NYSE led the US markets. Our biggest differentiators continue to be association with the world’s leading companies, the best platform for IPO execution and post-IPO support, and our unique market model which provides accountability to the issuer. As has been proven time and again, the NYSE’s price discovery process and the ongoing support from the DMMs makes going public on our markets smooth and reliable. Finally, we do a tremendous amount of work supporting the branding of our listed companies. Here is a video from the party we had on the floor last night celebrating AOLs return to the NYSE and debut as a stand-alone company. [attach link] There truly is no comparison to listing on the NYSE.

The question, of course, is whether the momentum for initial capital raising will continue. We think so. There are continuing concerns about costs and potential regulatory burdens for companies considering going public, but there is plenty of appetite for those with solid track records and consistent growth stories. We have seen over 50 new filings since September, so the calendar for the first half of 2010 is expected to be conservatively better than 2009.

Check out this growing list of notable 2009 IPOs and when you are ready to test the markets with your own company, you know where to find us.

(MJN; BSBR; DOLE; DG; H; EM; VSI; STRI; BPI; DGI; RST; SWI; ART; SEM; STWD; AOL)

Here’s a video about AOL — the latest addition to that list — going public:

Institutional Investor magazine is out with its annual survey of trading costs, in which Elkins/McSherry looks at all-in transaction costs in equities in 47 countries. No news here: NYSE-listed equities again best the rest.

The article says that in contrast to the longstanding downward trend, trading costs rose this year in equities markets around the world because of the extraordinary price volatility that started last year and continued through the first quarter of 2009. Despite that, costs for U.S. stocks remained the lowest in the world, with transaction costs for NYSE-listed issues at 15.40 basis points, or 16.7 percent lower than Nasdaq-listed issues’ 17.97 basis points. The global average was 41.38 basis points.

The magazine’s survey of trading costs usually includes a table listing costs by country, but neither the print nor the online version seems to have it this year. Maybe it will be posted later. The one constant is NYSE-listed issues coming out the leader. In fact, that was the topic of one my very first posts on this blog, back in December 2005. It was the same result in 2006. Not to mention 2007. And 2008. I think you get the picture.

Speaking of history:

Today in NYSE History
24 Nov. 1890 — Banker and Wall Street financier, August Belmont, died.

Today also is the birthday of the Dale Carnegie, author of the classic “How To Win Friends and Influence People” (born 1888, died 1955, excellent obit here); and Pete Best (68 today), who was for a time the drummer for a certain classic rock band. I know, I know — I don’t have to tell you.

Juniper Networks’ CEO, CTO and others will be at NYSE this morning to ring the Opening Bell and hold an analyst and press meeting on the occasion of the company’s transfer to NYSE from Nasdaq and the 40th anniversary of the Internet.

I had no idea the Internet was turning 40. Should I have baked Al Gore a cake?

At 10:30 a.m. EDT, Juniper Networks’ management will host a global press and analyst meeting to discuss its vision for the “new network” that will propel enterprises and service providers over the next decade. CEO Kevin Johnson and Pradeep Sindhu, founder and chief technology officer, along with other executives will unveil several new breakthrough products and partnerships, following a brief welcome by NYSE Euronext CEO Duncan Niederauer.

A live webcast of the meeting will be available here.

If you don’t know Juniper, the company describes itself as follows:

From devices to data centers, from consumers to the cloud, Juniper Networks delivers innovative software, silicon and systems that transform the experience and economics of networking. The company serves more than 30,000 customers and partners worldwide, and earned more than $3 billion in revenue over the last year. Additional information can be found at www.juniper.net

On a completely unrelated note (and since when were you expected something related from me?), today also is the 80th anniversary of a real chiller in financial-market history. May today be a whole lot better:

Today in NYSE History
28 Oct. 1929 -– “Black Tuesday,” the most dramatic day of the 1929 Crash. The DJIA was off nearly 12 percent on volume of 16 million shares, a record that would stand for decades.