San Francisco-headquartered brokerage and investment firm Charles Schwab said its net income in the final three months of last year fell 15 per cent from the previous quarter to $211 million, although that figure was up 29 per cent from the same period a year before.

Net income for the twelve months ending on 31 December 2012 was $928 million, up by 7 per cent year-over-year. The results for last year included an after-tax gain of approximately $44 million relating to the resolution of a vendor dispute and a non-recurring state tax benefit of approximately $20 million, which were recorded in the second and third quarters respectively.

“Our individual client loyalty scores reached new highs during the year, and our client metrics ended strongly, with December core net new assets totalling a record $22.6 billion, 28 per cent higher than the previous record set in March 2008,” Walt Bettinger, chief executive and president at Charles Schwab, said in a statement yesterday.

“Core net new assets totalled $112.4 billion for 2012, up 37 per cent over the prior year. We ended the year with a record $1.95 trillion in total client assets, up 16 per cent over December 2011. We added 900,000 new brokerage accounts to our client base during 2012, and active brokerage accounts reached a record 8.8 million at year-end, up 3 per cent year-over-year. In addition, we served 865,000 banking accounts and 1.6 million corporate retirement plan participants as of month-end December 2012, up 11 per cent and 5 per cent respectively,” he said.