(by Sh. Nakata)

Charles Schwab & Co. said it has cut its fees and minimums in its index fund.

The company said it has slashed the minimums for Institutional and Select Fund shares, which is sure to make it more available for the Investor share class clients.

Its Institutional Select Standard & Poor’s 500 Fund to 10 basis points from 15 through December 31, 2005.

The same action came from its closest rivals E*Trade Financial and fidelity Investments as the latter slashed the expense ratios of its Spartan Index Funds to10 bps from 47 bps in August and its competitor E*Trade cut the expenses of its S&P 500 and International index funds to nine basis points.