Financial Strength - STRENGTH AND SECURITY
Financial Strength
Financial Strength
When placing your money with a broker, you need to make sure your broker is secure and can endure through good and bad times. The financial statements of Interactive Brokers LLC are available on our website for your review.
Note that Interactive Brokers LLC and its affiliates are owned by IBG LLC.
In a recent interview, Thomas Peterffy, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors, shared his views on the current state of financial markets, including rising interest rates and their impact on Interactive Brokers. He also discussed IBKR's interest rates on instantly available cash balances and how clients are positioned to navigate the current environment.
Important Strength and Security Facts about Interactive Brokers Group1
- IBKR IS NOT A BANK, and as a regulated securities broker dealer, we cannot carry securities classified as HTM (Held To Maturity), which are not required to be marked to market on a bank's books. We also cannot make unsecured, long-term loans.
- The only kind of loans we can make are margin loans fully secured by marketable securities.
- Our real-time margining system marks all client positions to market continuously. All orders are credit vetted before being executed and positions in accounts with inadequate margin deposits are liquidated automatically.
- ALL of our positions are marked to market daily and the resulting payables/receivables are reconciled to outside sources automatically.
- IBKR invests cash in very short-term investments maturing within a few months. We hold no material positions in over-the-counter securities or derivatives. We hold no CDOs, MBS or CDS.
- On a consolidated basis, IBG LLC has $15.2 billion in equity capital, over $10.9 billion in excess of regulatory requirements.
- IBG LLC's owners are our public company, Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (27.7%) and the firm's employees and their affiliates (74.3%). Unlike at most other firms, where management owns a relatively small share, we participate substantially in the downside just as much as in the upside. Because of this vested interest, we run our business conservatively.
- IBG LLC reported $3.069 billion of pretax profit for 2023.
- IBG LLC has no long-term debt.
- Interactive Brokers LLC is rated "A- Outlook Stable" by Standard & Poor's. View S&P Rating Report.
- Interactive Brokers LLC's financial statements, which reflect the mark to market profit/loss on all securities positions, are submitted monthly to its regulators in its FOCUS report. View latest report.
Important Strength and Security Facts about Interactive Brokers AU
How We Handle Client Assets
Client money is segregated in special bank accounts (Client Money Accounts held in Trust with Authorised Deposit-taking Institutions ("ADI")) which are designated for the exclusive benefit of Australian clients of IBKR. This segregation is a requirement of Australian Financial Services License ("AFSL") holders and, Interactive Brokers Australia ("IBKR Australia"), as an AFSL holder, fully complies with these principles.
By properly segregating the client's assets, if no money or stock is borrowed and no futures positions are held by the client, then the client's assets are available to be returned to the client in the event of a default by or bankruptcy of the broker.
Client money is NOT invested by IBKR Australia, and is at all times held in these Client Money Accounts held in Trust. In addition, IBKR Australia does NOT hold any excess amount of its own money in these Client Money Accounts held in Trust.
Securities accounts with margin loans
For certain clients who borrow money from IBKR Australia to purchase securities, IBKR Australia is permitted to utilize for financing purposes a portion of the loan value of the stock these clients hold with IBKR Australia. In simple terms, IBKR Australia borrows money from a third party (such as a bank or broker-dealer), using the client's margin stock as collateral, and it lends those funds to the client to finance the client's margin purchases. Click here for more information on which clients are affected by this.