Schwab website crashes, thwarting advisers

Schwab’s website for advisers crashed this afternoon at around 2 p.m. ET. Advisers were denied access to the San Francisco-based Schwab Institutional website, which allows them to input client orders and check accounts and transaction histories, for about one hour, Schwab spokeswoman Alison Wertheim said. Bill Winterberg, operations manager with CMC Advisers in Portland, Ore., which manages about $170 million of client assets, said the site was back up around 3:30 p.m. ET, but the “applet’’ permitting web trading was still not functional. “I’ve had to call in trades to the mutual fund trading desk, and hold times are exceeding 20 minutes,’’ Mr. Winterberg said. Ms. Wertheim said the system and all its functionality was restored after about one hour. “We are in the process of determining the cause’’ of the crash, she said. Mr. Winterberg said his attempts to reach the site are online were rebuffed with messages that browsers could not display the Web page. He said he’s experienced one other such incident in the past year. The breakdown came as equity markets continued to be rocked by extreme volatility and high volume.