Overview
The Direct Registration System (DRS) allows shareholders to register their U.S. share holdings on the books and records of the issuer in an electronic rather than paper certificate form through the issuer’s designated transfer agent. Once held in a DRS account, the shares may then be transferred electronically via the Depository Trust Company (DTC) to your IB account where transactions may take place or where the shares may be afforded margin loan value.

It should be noted that not all shares are DRS eligible. In general, most U.S. exchange traded securities are, but many OTC shares, as well as shares subject to a restriction and therefore held in certificate form, are not.

Transfer Process
To deposit shares held in your DRS account to your IB account you will need to log into Account Management and create transfer instructions. These instructions require that you provide IB with certain information regarding your DRS account (e.g., account number and taxpayer ID) which you will need to obtain from and/or confirm with your transfer agent. It’s important that you provide IB with information which matches that of your DRS account, otherwise your transfer agent will reject the request and you will be charged a rejection fee. Information regarding fees for rejected as well as settled transactions are posted on the website.

Once the DRS account information has been confirmed, log into Account Management and proceed as follows:

1. Select the Funding and then Position Transfers menu options;

2. From the Position Transfer screen, select a transfer method of DRS-Direct Registration System and transfer type of Deposit via the drop-down menus;

3. You’ll be directed to the DRS Transfer screen where the taxpayer ID you’ve provided to IB is displayed. If this does not match that which you maintain for your DRS account, you will first need to reconcile and correct the information so it matches prior to proceeding with the transfer request. Requests submitted with a mismatched taxpayer ID will result in the transfer being rejected by your transfer agent and your account being subject to a rejection processing fee;

4. Enter your DRS account number and click the Continue button. Note that requests submitted with an account number that doesn't match that of your DRS account will result in the transfer being rejected by your transfer agent and your account being subject to a rejection processing fee;

5. Enter the symbol of the security you intend to transfer as well as the share quantity. Note that requests submitted with a symbol not held within or a share quantity which exceeds that held in your DRS account will result in the transfer being rejected by your transfer agent and your account being subject to a rejection processing fee;

6. Enter your electronic signature and click the “Continue” button to confirm your transfer request.

IB will then notify DTC who will match the security to its associated transfer agent and send them notification of your request. Assuming the DRS account and share information you’ve provided is correct, the transfer agent will post the shares for delivery to IB.  Note that while transfer requests typically settle within 2 -5 business days, the transfer agent may take longer to respond to the notification and, if no response is received within 30 days, the request will be canceled.

IMPORTANT NOTE
If you are transferring shares from a joint account or are a non-US person, special consideration needs to be provided to the taxpayer ID you provide to IB for matching to your DRS account. In the case of a joint account, the ID will generally be one of the SSNs of the joint account holders or a default value of 999999999. In the case of a non-US person, where no US taxpayer ID exists, a default value of 111111111 is often used. In either case, you will need to verify with the transfer agent the identifier they will recognize for matching purposes. If the transfer agent requests an identifier which doesn’t match one of the elections provided within Account Management, please contact Customer Service for transfer assistance.