Schwab has added options growth, now that it's completed a $1bn deal to acquire optionsXpress.  It now has expanded its options and futures reach at a time when other brokerage sectors have stalled.  Separately, BMO Capital Markets reported on Thursday that U.S. options volumes reached a record in August, up 39% from July, and up 88% from a year earlier.   San Francisco-based Schwab agreed in March to buy optionExpress for $1 billion in stock.

With over 8 million client brokerage accounts and $1.65 7 billion in client assets, the acquisitions adds 397,400 client accounts, $8.4 billion in client assets and a 12-month average of 44,900 daily average revenue trades, based on data for the first half of the year.

While it is much smaller than Schwab, optionXpress boosts the larger company's presence in an active trading sector that has grown strongly in recent years.  Schwab's chief rival TD Ameritrade bought options specialist thinkorswim in 2009.

SF-based Schwab said that work is underway to create a combined set of capabilities so that clients can log

on to Schwab.com to see their optionsXpress account balances and easily move money between accounts.

Schwab clients looking to immediately access optionsXpress's trading features and platform can open an optionsXpress account, the firm said.  Overall trading volumes at U.S. retail brokerages jumped 30% in August from July due to a spike in market volatility, following the U.S. credit rating downgrade and amid ongoing concerns over global growth, BMO said.   [Reuters, 9/1/11]