This FAQ is split into three parts.

 

 

Interactive Brokers Luxembourg SARL was granted authorisation by the Luxembourg Financial Sector Supervisory Commission (Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier, CSSF) to operate as an investment firm in November 2019. At that time, the CSSF imposed a limit of 10,000 accounts on IBLUX, which we accepted with the hope that this limit would be relaxed. As time has passed, we have recognised that our initial aspiration to grow a European business via IBLUX no longer makes sense since the bulk of Interactive Brokers’ European business has moved to other Interactive Brokers entities over the past four months in recognition of Brexit. Therefore, in the coming months, we will cease IBLUX’s regulated business, and as a result, we will need to make some changes in relation to which legal entity does business with you.

We propose to transfer the business that you currently conduct with IBLUX to our Irish affiliate, Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited (“IBIE”).  In other words, it is our intention that all of your accounts, investments and services currently provided to you by IBLUX will instead be provided by IBIE (for convenience we will refer to this as the “Proposed Transfer”).

The Proposed Transfer will occur soon after 30th June 2021. We will alert you just before processing the transfer of your account.

 

 

IBIE was granted authorisation by the Central Bank of Ireland to operate as an investment firm in December 2020. IBIE’s regulatory status and profile will be very similar to IBLUX’s. This is because both IBIE and IBLUX are authorised pursuant to the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Directive 2014/65/EU). This is an EU-wide piece of legislation the purpose of which is to, as much as possible, harmonise how investment firms are regulated across the EU.

 

This does not mean there are not some differences between the legislation that applies to your relationship with IBLUX at present and that which will apply once your account is transferred to IBIE.  We explain this in more detail in Part B of this FAQs.

 

Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited is registered as a private company limited by shares (registration number 657406) and is listed in the Register of Companies maintained by the Irish Companies Registration Office. Its registered address is 10 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin 2, D02 T380, Ireland.  We are still finalising IBIE’s day-to-day contact details, and we will be in touch with these details in due course. 

As set out above the Central Bank of Ireland is the competent regulator for IBIE (in the same way that the Luxembourg Financial Sector Supervisory Commission (“CSSF”) is the competent regulator for IBLUX).  The Central Bank of Ireland’s contact details are set out below:

 

The Central Bank of Ireland

New Wapping Street

North Wall Quay

Dublin 1

D01 F7X3

 

Phone: +353 (0)1 224 6000

Fax: +353 (0)1 224 5550

 

Central Bank of Ireland

P.O. Box 559

Dublin 1

 

E-mail: enquiries@centralbank.ie

Lo-Call: 1890 777 777

Phone: +353 (0)1 224 5800

IBIE is a wholly-owned subsidiary that sits within the broader Interactive Brokers Group.

We do not anticipate any material impacts for you as a result of the Proposed Transfer.  Nonetheless, it is very important that you read this FAQs carefully and in full and make sure that you understand what the changes are for you.

If you would like to continue to do business with Interactive Brokers, we require your cooperation and action.

 

Specifically, we need you to consent and agree to the Customer Agreement and other Documents available under the Important Information section of the Proposed Transfer process and to the regulatory matters outlined in the Covering Letter, the Important Information and Consent sections of the Proposed Transfer process.  You can do this by following the instructions in the Covering Letter.

 

To be clear, you do not have to consent to the Proposed Transfer if you feel that you may be adversely affected by it. However, you should be aware that if you decide to decline or do nothing, IBLUX will not be able to keep servicing your account after its license is relinquished. As part of the process, your account may be restricted, and your account may be forced closed. You have the ability to transfer the positions in your account to another broker within 30 days of receiving the communication inviting you to transfer your account. If you wish to decline, please follow the instructions in the Covering Letter.

 

In either case, we ask that you read the entirety of this FAQs and the Covering Letter before deciding to consent to or decline the Proposed Transfer.

If you consent to the transfer, please complete all actions detailed in the Covering Letter and we will prepare your account for the Proposed Transfer.  Following the Proposed Transfer, IBIE will write to you with further information about your new relationship with them.

 

Trades that you conduct after the Proposed Transfer will be governed by the new Customer Agreement between you and IBIE.  A copy of the new Customer Agreement is available in the Important Information section of the Proposed Transfer process.  Please see the response to Question A3 above in relation to the timing for the Proposed Transfer.

 

The Luxembourg conduct of business rules currently apply to your account with IBLUX. These rules are based heavily on the recast Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, the Markets in Financial Regulation and various delegated directives and regulations (collectively, “MiFID”).  

 

Similar to the Luxembourg conduct of business rules, the Irish conduct of business rules are based on MiFID.

 

Luxembourg custody rules currently apply to your accounts with IBLUX. These rules are based heavily on MiFID.  

 

Going forward, Irish custody rules will apply to your relationship with IBIE.  Like the Luxembourg custody rules, the Irish conduct of business rules are based on MiFID.  Please consult the Client Assets Key Information Document attached in the Important Information section in relation to the Irish custody regime.

 

Ireland’s compensation scheme is similar to the compensation scheme you have access to in Luxembourg. The purpose of the Irish Investor Compensation Scheme is to pay compensation to you (subject to certain limits) if you have invested money or investment instruments in either of the following cases:

 

 

The Investor Compensation Company DAC (ICCL) administers the scheme. IBIE will be a member of the scheme.

 

The scheme covers investment products including:

 

 

Usually, you can only make a claim after a firm goes out of business and its assets have been liquidated and distributed to those who are owed money. Please check the details of the schemes for any limits that apply – not all losses will be covered as there are maximum levels of compensation.  The ICCL will pay you compensation for 90% of the amount you have lost, up to a maximum of €20,000.

The new Customer Agreement sets out how to lodge a complaint with IBIE.  The complaints handling procedures are materially similar to those that apply to your existing relationship with IBLUX.  If the substance of your complaint relates to something that happened prior to the Proposed Transfer, then you should address your complaint to IBLUX.  

In case of a complaint, investors should follow the complaints procedure as referred to in the Customer Agreement.  Once the Proposed Transfer has taken place, the CSSF will cease to have jurisdiction over any complaints that you may have in respect of IBLUX.  However, please be aware that Ireland has a dispute resolution scheme in the form of the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (“FSPO”). The FSPO is a free and independent statutory dispute resolution scheme for financial services.  You may be eligible to make a complaint to the FSPO if you are an “eligible complainant”.  Details of who are “eligible complainants” can be found on www.fspo.ie. The FSPO can be contacted at:

 

Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman

Lincoln House,

Lincoln Place

Dublin 2

D02 VH29

 

+353 (0)1 567 7000

 

 

Your data will be processed and protected in accordance with the Interactive Brokers Group Privacy Policy which can be found at: https://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/index.php?f=305. There will be no material change.

 

 

 

Generally speaking, you should contact IBLUX with any questions that you may have prior to the Proposed Transfer, and you should contact IBIE with any questions that you may have following the Proposed Transfer taking place.  Regardless of who you contact at Interactive Brokers, we will ensure your query is promptly dealt with and we will help you to connect with the right person or department.

 

IBIE will offer the same range of products as IBLUX plus some additional products such as (i) Bonds; (ii) OTC Precious Metals, and (iii) OTC Metal Futures. IBIE will also offer the ability to participate in the Stock Yield Enhancement Programme. Please review the Stock Yield Enhancement Programme Agreement if you are interested in participating.

 

Your open positions will be transferred to IBIE and you will face IBIE rather than IBLUX.  You will no longer have any legal relationship with IBLUX in relation to those positions.  Please follow the link to the PRIIPs KID landing page in the Covering Letter to consult the applicable Key Investor Information Document.

 

If you have granted security or collateral to IBLUX this will transfer to IBIE upon the Proposed Transfer taking place.

 

We do not anticipate you needing to take any steps to reflect the change in beneficiary, although we may need to take some administrative steps of our own to update security registers with the change in details. This should, however, not affect our priority or otherwise affect the date from which the security is valid.

The migration will have no impact upon the software you use to trade or administer your account. The technology will remain the same as it is today.

 

All balances, with the exception of accruals (e.g., interest, dividends) will be transferred at the same time.  Once accruals have been posted to cash, they will automatically be swept to the migrated account.  

 

 

Once all accruals have been swept, your current account will be closed and inaccessible for trading purposes.  You will still be able to access this closed account via the Client Portal for purposes of viewing and printing archived activity and tax statements.

 

 

No. IBKR commissions and fees do not vary by the broker your account is maintained with.

 

 

No. Your trading permissions will not change when your account is migrated.

 

 

Open orders will not be carried over to the new account, and we recommend that clients review their orders immediately following the migration to ensure that the open orders are consistent with their trading intentions.

 

 

No. You will receive an annual statement of your existing account which will cover the period starting 1 January 2020 through the date of migration and a second annual statement for your new account which will cover the period starting from the migration date through the end of the year.

 

 

Yes, this migration will have no impact upon the cost basis of your positions.

 

 

The configuration of the account following migration will match that of the current account to the extent permissible by regulation. This includes attributes such as margin capability, market data, additional users, and alerts. In limited instances, an account will be migrated to a jurisdiction where the full scope of product eligibility cannot be offered. Client’s holding restricted products may migrate and maintain or close such positions but won’t be allowed to increase the position.

 

 

No. Your username, password, and any 2-factor authentication process in place for your existing account will remain active following migration. You will, however, be assigned a new account ID for your migrated account.