eTrade 2008 Annual Report Download - page 4

ITEM 1. BUSINESS
OVERVIEW
E*TRADE Financial Corporation is a financial services company that provides online brokerage and related
products and services primarily to individual retail investors, under the brand “E*TRADE Financial.” Our
products and services include investor-focused banking, primarily sweep deposits and savings products, and asset
gathering. Our competitive strategy is to attract and retain customers by emphasizing low-cost, ease of use and
innovation, with delivery of our products and services primarily through online and technology-intensive
channels.
Our corporate offices are located at 135 East 57th Street, New York, New York 10022. We were
incorporated in California in 1982 and reincorporated in Delaware in July 1996. We have approximately 3,400
employees. We operate directly and through numerous subsidiaries many of which are overseen by governmental
and self-regulatory organizations. Our most significant subsidiaries are described below:
• E*TRADE Bank is a Federally chartered savings bank that provides investor-focused banking services
to retail customers nationwide and deposit accounts insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (“FDIC”);
• E*TRADE Capital Markets, LLC (“ETCM”) is a registered broker-dealer and market-maker;
• E*TRADE Clearing LLC is the clearing firm for our brokerage subsidiaries and is a wholly-owned
operating subsidiary of E*TRADE Bank. Its main purpose is to transfer securities from one party to
another; and
• E*TRADE Securities LLC is a registered broker-dealer and the primary provider of brokerage services
to our customers.
A complete list of our subsidiaries can be found in Exhibit 21.1.
We provide services primarily to customers in the U.S. through our website at www.etrade.com. We also
offer, either alone or with our partners, branded retail websites outside of the U.S. the most significant of which
are: Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore,
Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
In addition to our websites, we also provide services through our network of customer service
representatives, relationship managers and investment advisors. We provide these services over the phone or in
person through our 29 E*TRADE Financial Centers. Information on our website is not a part of this report.
STRATEGY
Our strategy is to profitably grow our retail customer franchise and mitigate the risks associated with our
balance sheet. We plan to grow our retail customer franchise by offering online brokerage and related products
and services, including investor-focused banking and asset gathering products and services. We believe we can
accomplish this growth by appealing to retail investors, especially customers of traditional brokerages, who are
attracted to our low-cost, easy to use and innovative capabilities.
Our plan to mitigate the risks associated with our balance sheet contains three core goals: reduce credit risk
in our loan portfolio, reduce our level of corporate debt and reduce operating expenses. We believe that the
successful completion of this plan will significantly improve our financial strength.
We are also focused on simplifying and streamlining the business by exiting and/or restructuring certain
non-core operations. We believe these changes will better align our business with the retail investor.
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