Charles Schwab Corp said first-quarter earnings fell 29 percent as the largest U.S. online broker was hampered by lower assets valuations and interest rates as well as restructuring charges.

The company said it attracted $25 billion in net new assets in the quarter, suggesting it continued to snap up investment advisers and clients amid the sharpest market contraction in decades.

Earnings totaled $218 million, or 19 cents per share, down from $305 million, or 26 cents per share, a year earlier, the discount brokerage said on Wednesday.

Excluding a gain related to the repurchase of certain outstanding company debt, losses on certain mortgage-backed securities and severance charges, Schwab earned 21 cents a share, beating analysts' forecast of 16 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

Net revenue fell 15 percent to $1.11 billion.

In January, when Schwab announced up to 600 job cuts, the company said revenue could drop as much as 20 percent in 2009.

The company's stock was down 1.3 percent in premarket trading on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer and Juan Lagorio; editing by John Wallace)

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