IBKR Credit Rates

Client accounts may receive credit interest on long settled cash balances in their securities accounts.

Accounts with a Net Asset Value (NAV) of USD 100,000 (or equivalent) or more are paid interest at the full rate for which they are eligible. Accounts with NAV of less than USD 100,000 (or equivalent) receive interest at rates proportional to the size of the account.

For example, an account with a NAV of USD 50,000 earns credit interest at a rate equal to one-half the rate paid by IBKR to accounts with a NAV of USD 100,000 or more.

Interest accrues daily. IBKR posts the interest payments on a monthly basis on the third business day of the following month. IBKR uses a blended rate based on the tiers outlined in the table below. The tiers on which interest rates are based are subject to change without prior notification.

For balances held in JPY, or RUB, IBKR may apply an effective negative rate to long balances held. The negative rate applied to accounts holding these currencies is the same regardless of account size. For other currencies in which the effective rate is less than zero, the interest paid is 0%.

Please note that credit interest on accounts with Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited is generally subject to withholding tax at 20% of the interest amount paid. Exemptions and reductions are available to this requirement depending on a client’s legal status or country of tax residency.

There are two factors for daily cost/revenues associated with short selling of stocks and bonds at IBKR:

• Borrow Fee
• Short Sale Proceeds interest paid to you by IBKR

Borrow Fee

Costs for position borrowing of stocks with special considerations (for example hard to borrow instruments) are usually higher than for normal availability stocks. These additional costs will be passed on in the form of lower short stock credit interest. Please note that this may lead to a net debit short stock credit interest if the costs to borrow exceed the interest earned. In order to view the indicative short stock interest rates for a specific stock, IBKR recommends that clients use the Short Stock (SLB) Availability tool from the Support menu in Client Portal.

Short Sale Proceeds interest paid to you by IBKR

For the purposes of crediting interest on cash equal to short stock collateral values, only accounts with Net Asset Value (NAV) exceeding USD 100,000 will be eligible to receive credit interest on these cash balances.

For balances held in CHF, JPY, or RUB, IBKR may apply an effective negative rate to long balances held. The negative rate applied to accounts holding these currencies is the same regardless of account size. For other currencies in which the effective rate is less than zero, the interest paid is 0%.

IBKR’s benchmark for each currency is the reference rate around which our credit, debit, stock loan and other interest rate linked calculations are determined. IBKR uses a combination of internationally recognized reference rates (such Fed Funds), bank deposit rates, and dynamic interbank rates determined from foreign exchange and money markets to calculate an IBKR Reference Benchmark rate.

BACKGROUND

In determining the interest that account holders are paid on cash credit balances and charged on debit balances, each currency is assigned an IBKR Reference Benchmark rate. The IBKR Reference Benchmark rate is determined from short-term market rates but capped above/below widely used external reference rates or, where appropriate, bank deposit rates. This page explains how IBKR Reference Benchmark rates are determined.

Reference Rates

Reference rates are determined using a three-step process. The rates are capped above/below traditional external reference rates. For currencies and IBKR affiliates where Forex swap market pricing does not affect the rates we pay and charge our customers, Step 1 is omitted from the final rate determination.

1. Market implied rates

For market pricing, we utilize short-term Forex swap markets. Since most of the transactions involve the US dollar, Forex swap prices of currencies vs. the US dollar are sampled over a pre-determined time period referred to as the “Fixing Time Window” that is intended to be representative of liquid trading hours and primary turnover. The specific swap tenor and fixing windows used depend on the currency. We use the best bid and ask from a group of up to 12 of the largest Forex dealing banks to calculate the implied non-USD short-term rates – generally Overnight (T/T+1), Tom Next (T+1/T+2) or Spot Next (T+2/T+3). At the Fixing Time Window close, these calculations are sorted with the lowest and highest rates disregarded and the remainder averaged to determine the market implied reference rate.

2. Traditional external benchmark reference rates

For traditional benchmarks, we utilize published reference rates and, where appropriate, bank deposit rates. These rates generally are determined by either bank survey or actual transactions. The Hong Kong Inter-Bank Offered Rate (HIBOR), for example, is determined by surveying a panel of banks for the rate at which they could borrow funds from other banks at a specific time each day. In contrast, the US dollar Fed Funds effective rate is calculated as the weighted average of interbank lending rates transacted in the Fed Funds market.

The reform on interest rate benchmarks (IBOR reform), launched in 2013 by the G20 nations and conducted by regulatory authorities and public and private sector working groups, is gradually replacing bank survey based rates with new transaction driven reference rates.

3. IBKR Reference Benchmark Rates

The final IBKR Reference Benchmark rates are then determined by using the market implied reference rate, as described in 1. above, but capped by a certain amount above/below the traditional external benchmark reference rate as described in 2. above. For currencies and IBKR affiliates where Forex swap market pricing is not relevant, the final IBKR Reference Benchmark rates are determined by using traditional benchmarks or bank deposit rates, capped as above. The caps can change at any time without explicit prior notice and are listed in the table below, along with relevant currency and benchmark reference rates.

Examples

a. Assume the market implied overnight rate for GBP is 0.55%. The Sterling Overnight Index Average (SONIA) reference rate is 0.65%. The effective rate is then equal to the market implied rate of 0.55%, as it is still within the 1.00% cap around the SONIA reference rate at 0.65%.

b. If, for example, the market implied rate for CNH was 4.5% but the overnight CNH reference rate for the same period was 1.0%, the effective rate would be capped at 2.0% above the CNH reference rate, or 3.0% (1.0% reference rate + 2.0% cap).

¹ Caps or the deviation for the effective rate allowed above or below the benchmark fixing can change at any time without explicit prior notice.

In the event you hold an account with Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited (IBIE), the calculation will be Ending Settled Cash – Short Stock Collateral Value.

In the event you hold an account with Interactive Brokers U.K. Limited (IBUK), IBUK follows the steps listed in the Calculations section below to calculate the daily interest payable or receivable on cash balances. Interactive Brokers will combine, where possible, the balances held across multiple account segments of the integrated account. However, balances across multiple Interactive Brokers accounts will not be consolidated.