Introduction

Following the establishment of Interactive Brokers Australia Pty Ltd (IB Australia), who holds an Australian Financial Services License, number 453554, Australian residents maintaining an account with Interactive Brokers LLC (IB LLC) will have their account transferred to IB Australia as IB LLC intends to cease business in Australia. Outlined below are the steps required to initiate the transfer and information regarding the account holder's relationship with IB Australia following the transfer.

How To Transfer Your Account To IB Australia

Moving your account to IB Australia is easy. The process is simple because we will use the information and documents we already have on file for you. The transfer process is initiated once you sign the online authorisation form. This form will be presented to you immediately upon log in to Account Management.  Once the form has been signed your account will be scheduled for transfer, with the transfer typically taking effect over a weekend (with consideration given to weekends which coincide with option expiration processing).

Click Here to Authorise the Transfer of Your Account

We encourage you to complete the application to transfer to IB Australia as soon as possible.

Products offered by IB Australia

As a client of IB Australia, you will continue to be able to trade all of the exchange traded products you currently have access to (including local and global stocks, bonds, options, futures, etc.) through Interactive Brokers’ award winning trading platform and software. For further information on IB Australia's products and services, please see our website.

Australian regulatory status

Upon transfer of your account to IB Australia, you will automatically be designated as a retail client. However, if it appears that you may qualify as a wholesale investor or as a professional investor, or if you believe that you would qualify for either, you will have the option to complete and submit the required documentation for IB Australia to consider.

Offering margin under IB Australia

IB Australia have decided that they will not be offering margin accounts to a corporate entity which is designated as a retail client. As a result, if you currently have a margin account and you have not submitted the required documentation to allow IB Australia to categorize you as either a wholesale client or a professional investor, upon transfer of your account to IB Australia, you will not be able to use your margin account for any new purchases. If you think that you might qualify as either a wholesale client or a professional investor, and you would like to retain the benefits of a margin account with IB Australia, please ensure that you complete and submit the required documentation as soon as possible.

You should also note that IB Australia only offers risk based margin accounts, similar to our Portfolio Margin accounts under IB LLC. If you currently have a Reg T margin account and would like to simulate and review the margin changes after the migration, please login to our TWS trading platform, go to the Account window and select Margin Requirements then Portfolio Margin.

Client Money Considerations

Transfer Of Money From IB LLC To IB Australia: IB LLC and IB Australia are separate legal companies. When you complete the application to transfer your account to IB Australia, you will be directing IB LLC to close your account, transfer your positions, and pay to IB Australia all of the cash currently in your account. Upon receiving these funds, IB Australia will pay the funds into an IB Australia Client Money Account (discussed in more detail below). The actual transfer will occur as soon as practicable following the opening of your account with IB Australia.

Money To Be Held On Trust By IB Australia: IB Australia is required to handle all money that it receives from you or on your behalf in accordance with Part 7.8 of the Corporations Act. In other words, IB Australia is required to maintain one or more trust/segregated client money accounts (Client Money Accounts) with a bank for the holding of monies it receives for or from its clients. This money is held on trust for IB Australia's clients. IB Australia will initially only hold client money in Australian dollars (AUD), U.S. dollars (USD), British Pounds (GBP), or Euros (EUR).

For the purposes of this article, these currencies will be referred to as IBA supported currencies.

Conversion Or Withdrawal Of Non IBA supported currency Balances Before Transfer: You will be given a choice in the IB Australia application process as to which of these supported currencies you would like as your base currency. If you have cash balances in currencies other than IBA supported currencies (AUD, USD, GBP or EUR) these will to be converted into your nominated base currency upon the transfer of your account to IB Australia. The exchange rate that will apply to such a conversion will be the best rate that is reasonably available to IB LLC through its existing liquidity providers when it performs the conversion.

Client Assets And Positions – Transition

When you transfer your account to IB Australia, IB Australia will be your service provider, not IB LLC. When you trade through your IB Australia account, IB Australia will execute Australian market transactions for you, and will arrange for offshore brokers to execute transactions in offshore markets, including IB LLC and other Interactive Broker Group affiliates, as appropriate. In those markets, the offshore brokers will treat IB Australia as their client (and IB Australia will operate omnibus client accounts with those brokers to cover transactions for IB Australia's clients).

IB Australia will replace IB LLC as your custodian. IB Australia will hold all assets that you purchase through IB Australia on your behalf subject to IB Australia’s General Terms, which are available here.

Please refer to IB Australia’s Financial Services Guide, which provides important information about the custody services that IB Australia provides and the sub-custodians that IB Australia uses.

The following is a brief summary of the asset and position holding arrangements going forward:

When you agree to transfer your account to IB Australia, you will be instructing and authorising IB Australia and IB LLC to do all things reasonably required to facilitate the transfer of all assets and positions from your IB LLC account to your new IB Australia account, including to amend their books and records to reflect the transition, and to give appropriate instructions and directions to sub-custodians, clearing participants and other external providers.

Please note that if you hold positions in products that IBA does not support, such as OTC Metals, these positions will be closed out prior to transfer by IBA at the prevailing price. It is recommended that you close these out prior to completing the transfer form.

In addition, if you participate in the Stock Yield Enhancement Program (SYEP), IB Australia does not as yet support this service. You will not be able to participate in this once your account is transferred to IB Australia. 

In order to ensure continued compliance with our regulatory obligations, Interactive Brokers Australia has decided that we will NOT accept any other form of collateral except cash for the purposes of determining whether you can trade or hold ASX24 products. If the margin requirements of ASX24 products cannot be met using cash, an account will be subject to automated liquidation.

A new IB account number will be assigned and our deposit Instructions may change. Prior to making any new deposits, we ask that you obtain the new deposit instructions through Account Management.

The Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program is available to only those non-U.S. residents whose account is carried with IBLLC, the U.S. broker, or IB-UK, the introducing broker. If your account was previously carried by IBLLC, but is now carried by IB Australia, your account is no longer eligible for the Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program. Further information is available at this link:

https://gdcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/lib/cstools/chat/?channel=ticket2&referrer=integratedcashmanagement&showcase=SweepProgram

What If I Choose Not To Transfer My Account To IB Australia or Don't Act?

You are not required to transfer your account to IB Australia but you will need to close or transfer you account ASAP as IB LLC intends to cease providing financial services in Australia very soon. This means IB LLC will cease offering financial services and products to Australian residents, including you. This will impact you as follows:

If your account remains open and you have not opened a new account with IB Australia before a
nominated date of which we will be informed, then IB LLC (U.S.) will, under the terms of its Customer
Agreement with you, impose trading restrictions on your account, including prohibiting you from
opening new positions and may transfer your account to IB Australia.

What Happens When IB LLC (U.S.) Transfers My Account To IB Australia?

Please note the following information is only relevant if you do not apply to transfer your Account(s) to IB Australia prior to a date we will inform you of. 

If you have NOT applied to transfer your account(s) to IB Australia, then IB LLC (U.S.) will be forced to assign your account(s) to IB Australia. When this happens, IB Australia will be holding your account under the same agreement that you held the account with IB LLC (U.S.).  

You will be prohibited from opening new positions until you accept the legal terms that govern and the disclosures that relate to IB Australia’s account offering; you can, however, apply to withdraw your funds and transfer positions to 3rd party brokers.  

Please also note the following:

• If the base currency of your IB LLC (U.S.) is other than AUD, USD, GBP or EUR (IBA supported currencies), you will be provided the option to nominate one of these currencies as your base currency when you complete the transfer, otherwise we will default the base currency of the account prior to the transfer to IB Australia to AUD;
• Any currency balances currently held that are not denominated in either of the IBA supported currencies will be converted into your Base Currency at the prevailing exchange rate; and,
• If you close any open positions after the transfer and the settlement proceeds (if any) are in a currency other than the IBA supported currencies, IB Australia will convert the proceeds into the base currency of your account. If, at a later date, you still have not accepted IB Australia’s new legal terms and disclosures, then IB Australia may transfer out positions into issuer sponsored holdings (where it deems reasonable to do so) and liquidate any other open positions that you hold in the account and return the resulting funds to you. IB Australia will provide you notice should we decide to take this action.

Other

• For a full list of the disclosure documents and legal terms which govern the services IB Australia will make available please refer to the IB website.
• For further information on IB Australia, click on our Financial Services Guide.
• For more information or assistance, please contact IB Client Services.