Schwab can show IPO data to investors.

Washington--Brokerage Charles Schwab, which wants to expand customer access to initial public offerings (IPO), can use the Internet to transmit companies_ IPO presentations to individual investors, the Securities and Exchange Commission held. The SEC ruling, presented in a so-called "no-action" letter to Schwab, likely will open many companies_ pre-IPO promotional presentations--called "roadshows"--that now are typically restricted to analysts and institutional investors, legal experts said. The SEC_s ruling will let San Francisco-based Schwab, the top Internet broker, permit many investment advisers, as well as about 1 million wealthier individual investors, to participate in live or recorded roadshows about company finances. Schwab announced earlier this week that it is joining two other online brokerages, Ameritrade Holding and TD Waterhouse Group, to form an online investment bank in an attempt to secure more IPO shares from Wall Street underwriters. Schwab executives have been frustrated that the firm_s previous alliances with underwriters had yielded few IPO share allocations for its customers. Schwab said it intends to start trying to open company roadshows to individual investors in the first quarter of next year. Schwab has participated in about 73 IPOs recently, and hopes to increase that number substantially in the coming year.