E-Trade Financial Corp. announced that it posted its best month in more than five years for new account openings in October, as trading activity climbed during the month and the slow-motion stock market crash swamped equity markets.
The lender and online broker, which has been rocked by the turmoil in the housing market, announced Wednesday that it opened 63,538 net new retail accounts, a category that includes both banking and brokerage accounts, in October.
That helped push the New York company's total retail accounts up 1.4% from September and 4.4% from a year earlier. For the third quarter, net new accounts rose 40,888.
Customer assets, though, fell 16% from September, to $119.38 billion, and were down 46% from a year earlier as securities holdings tumbled 52%.
Some customers have been leaving the online brokerage company over worries about its mortgage portfolio, among other concerns. It has taken about $1 billion in home-related losses from loans and mortgage-backed securities.
Average daily revenue trades rose 15% from both September and a year earlier during October.
