E*Trade has higher customer activity

NEW YORK (Reuters) - E*Trade Financial Corp saw higher-than-normal customer activity on Tuesday, with the surge likely tied to a fall in stock markets worldwide, it said.

E*Trade's Web-based system saw more customers log in at any one time than during any period over the last five years, according to a company spokeswoman.

Call center volume was 25 percent higher as of noon EST, she added.

Up to 55,000 customers were logged into accounts on its Web site at any one point in time on Tuesday, a 5-year high. The company has about 3.5 million customers worldwide.

The surge in activity did not put any strain on its trading system, the spokeswoman said.

Customers were able to log into their accounts and make trades, look up research, or perform other actions, within a 4-second time frame, according to the company.

Earlier Tuesday, rival brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp experienced an outage on its Web-based trading system. It was not known if higher volume led to the problem. Customers continued to be able to get access to their accounts over the company's telephone system, TD Ameritrade said in a note on its Web site.

(Reporting by Lilla Zuill; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)