diff --git a/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/config/xml/ThreadPoolTaskExecutorParser.java b/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/config/xml/ThreadPoolTaskExecutorParser.java
index 8d660496e6..43839c4a73 100644
--- a/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/config/xml/ThreadPoolTaskExecutorParser.java
+++ b/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/config/xml/ThreadPoolTaskExecutorParser.java
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.support.BeanDefinitionBuilder;
 import org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.AbstractSimpleBeanDefinitionParser;
 import org.springframework.scheduling.concurrent.ThreadPoolTaskExecutor;
+import org.springframework.util.StringUtils;
 
 /**
  * @author Mark Fisher
@@ -55,7 +56,10 @@ public class ThreadPoolTaskExecutorParser extends AbstractSimpleBeanDefinitionPa
 		String policyName = element.getAttribute(REJECTION_POLICY_ATTRIBUTE);
 		builder.addPropertyValue("rejectedExecutionHandler", createRejectedExecutionHandler(policyName));
 		builder.addPropertyValue("corePoolSize", element.getAttribute(CORE_SIZE_ATTRIBUTE));
-		builder.addPropertyValue("maxPoolSize", element.getAttribute(MAX_SIZE_ATTRIBUTE));
+		String maxSize = element.getAttribute(MAX_SIZE_ATTRIBUTE);
+		if (StringUtils.hasText(maxSize)) {
+			builder.addPropertyValue("maxPoolSize", maxSize);
+		}
 	}
 
 	private RejectedExecutionHandler createRejectedExecutionHandler(String policyName) {
diff --git a/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/config/xml/spring-integration-1.0.xsd b/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/config/xml/spring-integration-1.0.xsd
index 06073075c0..3843799446 100644
--- a/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/config/xml/spring-integration-1.0.xsd
+++ b/org.springframework.integration/src/main/java/org/springframework/integration/config/xml/spring-integration-1.0.xsd
@@ -345,7 +345,14 @@
 			</xsd:annotation>
 			<xsd:attribute name="id" type="xsd:ID" use="required"/>
 			<xsd:attribute name="core-size" type="xsd:string" default="1"/>
-			<xsd:attribute name="max-size" type="xsd:string" default="10"/>
+			<xsd:attribute name="max-size" type="xsd:string">
+				<xsd:annotation>
+					<xsd:documentation>
+	Specifies the maximum pool size in order to limit the number of concurrent tasks.
+	Otherwise, the default will be Integer.MAX_VALUE.
+					</xsd:documentation>
+				</xsd:annotation>
+			</xsd:attribute>
 			<xsd:attribute name="queue-capacity" type="xsd:string" default="0"/>
 			<xsd:attribute name="keep-alive-seconds" type="xsd:string" default="60"/>
 			<xsd:attribute name="rejection-policy" default="CALLER_RUNS">