Charles Schwab CEO says clients poured in $4 billion at the height of the SVB panic

• CEO Walter Bettinger said inflows grew significantly the day Silicon Valley Bank began to collapse.
• He also told CNBC that he bought 50,000 shares of Charles Schwab on Tuesday for his personal account.
• He said Charles Schwab is managed conservatively and has a different business model than regional banks.

As panic over Silicon Valley Bank's collapse was peaking in financial markets on Friday, Charles Schwab clients poured $4 billion into the firm that day, said CEO Walter Bettinger.

That's double the daily inflows of about $2 billion that Schwab has been averaging so far this month, he told CNBC on Tuesday. And for all of February, clients added a net $42 billion in new assets.

"Actually, what we're seeing is asset inflows to the firm in significant numbers," Bettinger said.

And while Charles Schwab shares have fallen around 30% since the start of the crisis, the stock was the number one buy for the bank's clients on Friday, he said, adding that he bought 50,000 shares on Tuesday for his personal account.

While contagion fears have spread to other regional banks and Charles Schwab, Bettinger said the company's brokerage and banking operations are separate and both well capitalized.

On the banking side, he characterized Schwab as conservatively managed, and outlined that 10% of client deposits were invested in low-risk, overcollateralized loans with another 80% in US government-backed bonds. 

He added that Schwab's 12-month liquidity level was equal to nearly the entire banking operation's deposits, or about $280 billion. And more than 80% of its deposits are covered by the FDIC's $250,000 threshold.

"We do understand that when our stock price went down at a rate that was, in some manners, consistent with some of the regionals, people easily put us up on slides and talked about us in a manner consistent with some of the regional banks. Completely different model," Bettinger said.