"We're excited to welcome optionsXpress clients to Schwab, and to be able to introduce the impressive options and futures capabilities of the derivatives trading leader to our clients," said Walt Bettinger, Schwab President and Chief Executive Officer.

"We're extremely pleased to join the Schwab family, and look forward to creating an even more robust trading and investing experience for the clients of both companies," said David Fisher, optionsXpress President and Schwab Senior Vice President.

As of June 30th, optionsXpress had 397,400 client accounts, $8.4 billion in client assets and a 12 month average of 44,900 daily average revenue trades. Schwab operates one of the nation's largest brokerage firms in terms of client assets, which totaled $1.66 trillion as of June 30, 2011 and serves more than 10 million individual, independent advisor client and retirement plan participant accounts with a wide range of financial products and full-service investment help and advice.

To immediately access its advanced trading features, platform innovations and educational resources, Schwab clients can open an optionsXpress account.

According to Andy Gill, Chief Operating Officer of Investor Services, the division that optionsXpress is joining, "Work is now underway to create a combined set of capabilities so clients will be able to log on to Schwab.com to see their optionsXpress account balances and easily move money between accounts." Gill cited optionsXpress' All-In-One Trade Ticket, which enables trading from a single, easy-to-use trade ticket, three- and four-legged options trading online, portfolio margining and futures trading as examples of new trading capabilities that are now available to Schwab clients through optionsXpress.