New and existing customers will be prompted to provide a valid mobile phone number in account management and during the application process.
For more information about account linking, see the Account Management Users' Guide
For more information about account linking, see the Account Management Users' Guide
Certain clients are now eligible to join offers to buy shares for an Initial Public Offering. Log in to Account Management and go to Trading > IPO subscription.
To learn how to enter into an IPO, see the see the Account Management Users' Guide
Clients with activated debit cards can now view their account withdrawel limits on the home page of Responsive Account Management.
For more information, see the Cash Details in the Responsive Account Management Users' Guide.
For more information, see the CFD page on our website.
Clients can join the Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program to obtain up to $2,500,000 of FDIC insurance on cash held in IB accounts in additon to existing SIPC coverage.
For more information about enrolling, see the Cash Management page on our website.
Brokers and Advisors can use Account Management to enable the debit card signup for their clients. Once enabled, clients will be able to sign up for the debit card in their own instance of Account Management.
To allow clients to apply for the debit card, go to Manage Clients > Settings > Debit Card for Clients.
For more information, see the Debit Mastercard page on our website.
Brokers and Advisors can now set fee schedules for Polish stocks in Account Management.
Fully Disclosed Brokers now have the ability to become Full Service Brokers and perform additional functions on behalf of their clients by getting specific authorization from clients to modify additional settings in the client account. These additional broker authorizations are listed on the Client Account Details page for open and pending client accounts. Fully Disclosed Broker clients can authorize their broker to perform tasks in the following categories:
Fully Disclosed Brokers interested in becoming Full Service Brokers must opt into the program on the Manage Clients > Settings > Full Service page in Account Management.
For more information on becoming a Full Service Broker, see Additional Broker Authorizations in the Account Management Users' Guide.
We have introduced a new account structure - Institutional Hedge Fund Investors. These new accounts are designed for institutions such as endowments and foundations who want to access our Hedge Fund Marketplace and browse and invest in participating hedge funds.
For more information, see Institutional Hedge Fund Investors on our website.
As an alternative to entering a simple Annualized Percentage of Net Liquidation for client fees, advisors can now charge a blended rate based on up to five ranges of your client's Net Asset Value (NAV). In a blended rate, enter an annualized fee percentage for each NAV range, and the total blended rate is the sum of the fee amount for each range up to the client's current NAV.
To set a blended rate when configuring client fees, an advisor selects the new Blended check box and clicks the pencil icon to enter up to five NAV ranges and a corresponding fee percentage.
For more information, see the Account Management Users' Guide.
Brokers and Advisors who use fee per trade client markups can now enter minimum, maximum and ticket charges for Global (offshore) Mutual Funds. Previously, fee per trade markups were only allowed for USD and EUR mutual funds.
When a client chooses to link to an advisor from the Investors' Marketplace, that client will automatically be assigned the client fees that the advisor has set in the default client fee template. The client will now be able to see and sign off on the fees before he moving his or her account to the selected advisor.
Individual and Joint advisor clients who want to maintain separate trading strategies and take advantage of consolidated margin for maintenance and liquidation purposes can now become Separate Trading Limit (STL) accounts under the advisor by adding authorized traders.
To do this, first the advisor sends an account application to the client. Once the client account is open, the client will be able to add trading sub accounts by selecting Manage Account > Add or Link Accounts > Authorized Trader. This turns the client's account into an STL account.
If you unenroll from the Stock Yield Enhancement Program, you must wait 90 days before you can reenroll in the program.
The Statement Audit Report available in EmployeeTrack Management lets Compliance Officers review all employee statement views pending review, all employee statements that have been reviewed, and all employee statements not available for review for a single month. Compliance Officers can now choose to show only those employee statements with no activity by selecting a check box.
When the Statement Audit Report is generated for employee statements with no activity, Compliance Officers can review all of the employee statements at once by clicking the Review All button located at the bottom of the report.
Advisor Masters, Broker Masters and Fund Investment Managers can request up to five duplicate accounts for an existing client account. We have moved this functionality to the Dashboard under the Manage Clients menu. Previously, this functionality had its own page under Manage Clients.
In some cases, we ask our clients to identify themselves by answering the security questions that they provided in their account application. If you have forgotten these questions and answers, you can use the new Change Security Questions page in Account Management to change them.
This feature is only available to account holders who meet the following criteria:
Access this feature by clicking Manage Account > Security > Change Security Questions.
We have increased the limits on broker client markups. Broker client markups are now limited to 45 times Interactive Brokers' standard commissions. If a Broker submits a markup that is above 15 times our standard commission, IB will receive 1/15 of the amount above 15 times.
Our new Pre-Trade Compliance tool lets Advisors, Brokers, Hedge Fund Investment Managers, Proprietary Trading Group Master Account users and Compliance Officers apply trade-related restrictions to an account, a user or an entire family of accounts, including all client and sub accounts. We've introduced the following new features to the Pre-Trade Compliance Tool:
Advisors, Brokers, Hedge Fund Investment Managers, and Proprietary Trading Group Master Account users can launch the Pre-Trade Compliance tool from the Manage Account > Trade Configuration > Restrictions page or the Manage Clients/Funds/Traders > Trading > Restriction page in Account Mangement. Simply click the Pre-Trade Compliance button to launch the new tool.
Compliance Officers can launch the Pre-Trade Compliance tool from the Manage Employees > Trading Restrictions page in EmployeeTrack Management. Click the Pre-Trade Compliance button to launch the new tool.
Fully Disclosed and Non-Disclosed Brokers can mark up debit interest when configuring fees for their clients. We have raised the Debit Markup limit from 1% to 5%. In addition, we will charge 25% of the debit interest markup over 1%.
The new 25% Charge Over 1% column shows the interest markup that IB will earn. For example, if you enter 1 (for 1%) in the Debit Markup field, then 0 will appear in the 25% Charge Over 1% field. If you enter 5 (for 5%) in the Debit Markup field, 1 will appear in the 25% Charge Over 1% field (25% of 4%, the amount of Debit Markup over 1%, is 1%).
When configuring fees for a single client, multiple clients or a for client fee template, brokers now choose a pricing structure (commission plan) before actually setting fees or markups. There are three pricing structures to choose from:
Each selection is applied to all securities and commodities in the broker client's account.
Tiered Pricing Structure with No Markups will automatically be applied to new brokers and their clients. The broker can change this selection on the Manage Clients > Fees > Configure page in Account Management.
For more information about our tiered and fixed commissions, see the Commissions pages on our website.
For more information about how to configure fees for broker clients, see the Account Management Users' Guide.
Our Advisor Fee Reimbursement feature lets advisors reimburse fees to their clients. Now fee reimbursements can include any type of advisor fee. Previously, fee reimbursements were restricted to fees for which electronic invoices were submitted. Submit fee reimbursements on the Manage Clients > Fees > Invoicing page in Account Management.
By popular demand, we have brought back our Trader Referral Program, which lets you send an invitation to a friend or fellow investor to open an account with us, and in return receive a bonus of up to $200.
The Trader Referral Program is open to Individual, Joint, Trust and IRA accounts, but not Advisor or Broker clients. Sign up on the Manage Account > Trader Referral page in Account Management.
Learn more about the program, including payout rules, in the Account Management Users' Guide.
Our new Pre-Trade Compliance tool lets Advisors, Brokers, Hedge Fund Investment Managers, Proprietary Trading Group Master Account users and Compliance Officers apply trade-related restrictions to an account, a user or an entire family of accounts, including all client and sub accounts. The Pre-Trade Compliance tool replaces all trading restrictions previously available in Account Management and EmployeeTrack Management. You must use the new tool to create and apply trading restrictions.
Advisors, Brokers, Hedge Fund Investment Managers, and Proprietary Trading Group Master Account users can launch the Pre-Trade Compliance tool from the Manage Account > Trade Configuration > Restrictions page or the Manage Clients/Funds/Traders > Trading > Restriction page in Account Mangement. Simply click the Pre-Trade Compliance button to launch the new tool.
Compliance Officers can launch the Pre-Trade Compliance tool from the Manage Employees > Trading Restrictions page in EmployeeTrack Management. Click the Pre-Trade Compliance button to launch the new tool.
You can now import VCards (.VCF files) into CRM for contact or prospect records, thus saving time in entering contact or prospect information.
For more information, see Import Contacts in the Account Management Users' Guide.
Through our new Advisor Compliance Obligations Reporting System, we now provide Section 13 monitoring, alerts and on-demand reporting in Account Management for advisors trading through us that may need to file Form 13F or Schedules 13D/13G with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) because of the types and amount of positions held in their client and proprietary accounts. This system was designed to support Form 13F and Schedule 13D/G monitoring and reporting for advisory firms with multiple advisors.
Once an Advisor subscribes to this service, we monitor their aggregate sub account and proprietary positions for thresholds specified in Section 13 of the Exchange Act. Advisors can elect to receive alerts and/or reports when their positions exceed these thresholds. These advisors are then required to file the appropriate form or schedule with the SEC.
We currently support the following filings:
For complete instructions, see Compliance for Advisors in the Account Management Users' Guide.
Canadian account holders can now participate in our Stock Yield Enhancement Program, which allows our clients to earn extra income on the fully-paid shares of stock held in their accounts. Sign up for the program on the Manage Account > Trade Configuration > Permissions page in Account Management..
Click here more information about the Stock Yield Enhancement Program.
Accounts opened under IB-HK (Hong Kong) can now request third-party withdrawals, which are wire withdrawals from your IB account to an eligible third party.
For more information on third-party withdrawals, see our Funding Reference.
Advisors and Brokers who set up fee-per-trade client fees based on a tiered commission schedule now have access to two additional tiers. Previously, when Advisors and Brokers set absolute amount tiered commissions based on volume breaks, they could only set three tiers. They can now set up to five tiers.
For more information about setting client fees, see the Account Management Users' Guide.
Advisors and Brokers who have added users designated as Account Representatives can now search for Account Representative in the Account Selector on our Reporting pages.
Our Hedge Fund Marketplace lets Hedge Funds market their Funds to eligible clients. We have adopted new rules governing Hedge Fund updates on our Hedge Fund Marketplace:
We renamed Registered Representatives for Broker clients to Account Representatives and changed the way Broker Master Users can assign Account Representatives to a client. An Account Representative is a person who manages the relationship between a broker and his or her client(s).
To assign an Account Representative to a client, the Broker Master User must first designate an account user as an Account Representative on the Manage Account > Access Rights > Users page. Once there is at least one account user designated as an Account Representative, the Broker Master User can assign the Account Representative to a client by first opening the Manage Clients > Dashboard page, then viewing the Account Details for the client, and then clicking the plus sign in the Account Representatives section.
Through Covestor, we now offer Smart Beta Portfolios to IB customers, including Advisor clients. Smart Beta Portfolios combine the benefits of actively managed fund stock selection techniques with passive ETF low cost automation to provide broad market exposure and potentially higher returns.
For complete instructions for Advisors on how to connect their clients to Covestor accounts, see Covestor Smart Beta Portfolios for Advisor Clients.
CRM now lets Advisors and Brokers generate VCards for individual CRM records. From an individual CRM contact, prospect or client record, you can export the record to a .VCF file, which is a VCard that can be opened in Microsoft Outlook. Simply click the VCard link from the individual record and you will be prompted to save the .VCF file.