The International Securities Exchange (ISE), the fast-growing all-electronic options exchange, became the world's largest options exchange last month, outpacing the rival Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) for the first time.

Outperforming the CBOE is a coup for ISE which started in May 2000 as the first all-electronic US options exchange. The CBOE, which only recently introduced electronic trading, saw volumes of just 22.2 million during February compared to ISE's 27.6 million.