Interactive Brokers Group, Inc.
For the period ended Dec 31, 2025. Filed Feb 27, 2026.
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FY2025 · Filed Feb 27, 2026
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Regulation
Our financial services businesses are extensively regulated by U.S. federal and state regulators, foreign regulatory agencies, and numerous exchanges and self-regulatory organizations of which our subsidiaries are members. In the current era of heightened regulation of financial institutions, we expect to incur increasing compliance costs, along with the industry as a whole. Our approach has been to build many of our regulatory and compliance functions into our integrated order routing, custodial, customer onboarding and transaction processing systems, and augment these systems with experienced staff members.
As registered U.S. broker-dealers, Interactive Brokers LLC (“IB LLC”), IBKR Securities Services LLC (“IBKRSS”) and Interactive Brokers Corp. are subject to the rules and regulations of the Exchange Act, and as members of various exchanges, we are also subject to such exchanges’ rules and requirements. Additionally, IB LLC is subject to the Commodity Exchange Act and rules promulgated by the CFTC and the various commodity exchanges of which it is a member. We are also subject to the requirements of various self-regulatory organizations such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (“CME”) and the National Futures Association (“NFA”). ForecastEx, an exchange and clearinghouse for forecast contracts, is registered with the CFTC as a Designated Contract Market and Derivatives Clearing Organization. Our foreign subsidiaries are similarly regulated under the laws and institutional frameworks of the countries in which they operate.
U.S. broker-dealers and futures commission merchants are subject to laws, rules and regulations that cover all aspects of the securities and derivatives business, including:
sales methods;
“know your customer” requirements;
anti-money laundering requirements;
trade practices;
use and safekeeping of customers’ funds and securities;
capital structure;
risk management;
record-keeping;
financing of customers’ purchases; and
conduct of directors, officers and employees.
In addition, the businesses that we may conduct are limited by our arrangements with and our oversight by regulators. Participation in new business lines, including trading of new products or participation on new exchanges or in new countries often requires governmental and/or exchange approvals, which may take significant time and resources. As a result, we may be prevented from entering new businesses that may be profitable in a timely manner, or at all.
As certain of our subsidiaries are members of FINRA, we are subject to certain regulations regarding changes in control of our ownership. FINRA Rule 1017 generally provides that FINRA approval must be obtained in connection with any transaction resulting in a change in control of a member firm. FINRA defines control as ownership of 25% or more of the firm’s equity by a single entity or person and would include a change in control of a parent company. As a result of these regulations, our future efforts to sell shares or raise additional capital may be delayed or prohibited by FINRA.
Net Capital Rule
The SEC, FINRA, CFTC and various other regulatory agencies within the U.S. have stringent rules and regulations with respect to the maintenance of specific levels of net capital by regulated entities. Generally, a broker-dealer’s capital is its net worth plus qualified subordinated debt less deductions for certain types of assets. The Net Capital Rule requires that at least a minimum part of a broker-dealer’s assets be maintained in a relatively liquid form.
If these net capital rules are changed or expanded, or if there is an unusually large charge against our net capital, our operations that require the intensive use of capital would be limited. A large operating loss or charge against our net capital could adversely affect our ability to expand or even maintain these current levels of business, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
The U.S. regulators impose rules that require notification when net capital falls below certain predefined criteria. These rules also dictate the ratio of debt-to-equity in the regulatory capital composition of a broker-dealer and constrain the ability of a broker-dealer to expand its business under certain circumstances. If a firm fails to maintain the required net capital, it may be subject to suspension or revocation of registration by the applicable regulatory agency, and suspension or expulsion by these regulators could ultimately lead to the firm’s liquidation. Additionally, the Net Capital Rule and certain FINRA rules impose requirements that may have the effect of prohibiting a broker-dealer from distributing or withdrawing capital and requiring prior notice to U.S. regulators and approval from FINRA for certain capital withdrawals.
Our foreign subsidiaries are similarly regulated with regard to capital requirements in support of their brokerage activities.
As of December 31, 2025, aggregate excess regulatory capital for all of the operating subsidiaries was $14.1 billion.
IB LLC is subject to the Uniform Net Capital Rule (Rule 15c3-1) under the Exchange Act and to the CFTC’s minimum financial requirements (Regulation 1.17) under the Commodities Exchange Act. Additionally, Interactive Brokers Canada Inc. (“IBC”) is subject to the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (“CIRO”) risk adjusted capital requirement; Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited (“IBUK”) is subject to the United Kingdom’s (“U.K.”) Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) financial resources requirement; Interactive Brokers Ireland Limited (“IBIE”) is subject to the Central Bank of Ireland (“CBI”) financial resources requirement; IBKR Financial Services AG (“IBKRFS”) is subject to the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (“FINMA”) eligible equity requirement; Interactive Brokers (India) Private Limited (“IBI”) is subject to the National Stock Exchange of India net capital requirements; Interactive Brokers Hong Kong Limited (“IBHK”) is subject to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (“SFC”) financial resource requirement; Interactive Brokers Securities Japan, Inc. (“IBSJ”) is subject to the Japanese Financial Services Agency (“FSA”) capital requirements; Interactive Brokers Singapore Pte. Ltd. (“IBSG”) is subject to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) capital requirements; and Interactive Brokers Australia Pty Limited (“IBA”) is subject to the Australian Securities Exchange (“ASX”) liquid capital requirement.
The table below summarizes capital, capital requirements and excess regulatory capital as of December 31, 2025.
| Net Capital/ | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eligible Equity · Requirement · Excess | ||||||
| (in millions) | ||||||
| IB LLC | $ | 10,609 | $ | 1,785 | $ | 8,824 |
| IBHK | 1,685 | 547 | 1,138 | |||
| IBIE | 1,698 | 403 | 1,295 | |||
| Other regulated operating subsidiaries | 2,986 | 192 | 2,794 | |||
| $ | 16,978 | $ | 2,927 | $ | 14,051 | |
As of December 31, 2025, all of the operating subsidiaries were in compliance with their respective regulatory capital requirements. For additional information regarding our net capital requirements see Note 16 – “Regulatory Requirements” to the audited consolidated financial statements in Part II, Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Protection of Customer Assets
To conduct customer activities, IB LLC is obligated under rules mandated by its primary regulators, the SEC and the CFTC, to segregate cash or qualified securities belonging to customers. In accordance with the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, IB LLC is required to maintain separate bank accounts for the exclusive benefit of customers. In accordance with the Commodity Exchange Act, IB LLC is required to segregate all monies, securities and property received from commodities customers in specially designated accounts. IBC, IBUK, IBIE, IBI, IBHK, IBSJ, IBSG and IBA are subject to similar requirements within their respective jurisdictions.
To further enhance the protection of our customers’ assets, IB LLC performs daily (i.e., instead of the required weekly) customer reserve computations along with daily adjustments of the money set aside in safekeeping for our customers.
Supervision and Compliance
Our Compliance department supports and seeks to ensure proper operations of our business in accordance with applicable regulatory requirements. The philosophy of the Compliance department, and the Company as a whole, is to build automated systems to try to minimize manual steps in the compliance process and then to augment these systems with experienced staff members who apply their judgment where needed. We have built automated systems to handle wide-ranging compliance issues such as trade and audit trail reporting, financial operations reporting, enforcement of short sale rules, enforcement of margin rules and pattern day trading restrictions, recording and review of employee correspondence, archival of required records, execution quality and order routing reports, approval and documentation of new customer accounts, surveillance of customer trading for market manipulation or abuse or violations of exchange rules, and anti-money laundering and anti-fraud surveillance in line with our anti-money laundering policies. Our automated operations and automated compliance systems provide substantial efficiencies to our Compliance department. As part of this continuing effort, we have implemented a robust case management and surveillance system and increased our Compliance staffing over the past several years to meet the growing regulatory burdens faced by all industry participants.
Our brokerage subsidiaries have Chief Compliance Officers who report to the Chief Executive Officer or business head for their subsidiary, and to the Global Chief Regulatory Officer (or regional Compliance Head). In the U.S., the Chief Compliance Officer and certain other senior staff members are FINRA and NFA registered principals with supervisory responsibility over the compliance aspects of our businesses. Similar roles are undertaken by staff in certain non-U.S. locations as well. Staff members in the Compliance department and in other departments are also registered with FINRA, NFA or other regulatory organizations.
Communications
The SEC, FINRA and CFTC have stringent rules and regulations requiring broker-dealers to preserve all written communications related to the Company’s business. Under these rules, firms are required to enforce internal policies and supervise their employees and prevent them from using unapproved communication methods, including personal text messages, WhatsApp, and other messaging platforms, to communicate about the Company’s business, unless the Company retains those communications. If a firm fails to use approved communication methods and preserve off-channel electronic communications, it may be subject to fines and other disciplinary action.
We send and retain text messages, emails, and other written communications on a variety of approved applications and platforms as part of our regular business, and we have procedures in place to retain written communications made through other channels necessary for business purposes. As such, the Company has a Business Communication Policy in place and requires all employees to certify that they have read and agreed to only send and receive written electronic communications related to the business of the Company through Company-approved channels.
Patriot Act and Increased Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”) and “Know Your Customer” Obligations
Registered broker-dealers traditionally have been subject to a variety of rules that require that they “know their customers” and monitor their customers’ transactions for suspicious activities. Under the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (the “USA Patriot Act”), broker-dealers are subject to even more stringent requirements. Likewise, the SEC, CFTC, foreign regulators, and the various exchanges and self-regulatory organizations, of which our operating subsidiaries are members, have passed numerous AML and customer due diligence rules. Significant criminal and civil penalties can be imposed for violations of the USA Patriot Act, and significant fines and regulatory penalties can also be imposed for violations of other governmental and self-regulatory organization AML rules.
As required by the USA Patriot Act and other rules, we have established comprehensive AML and customer identification procedures, and designated AML Compliance Officers for each brokerage subsidiary; and we provide formal AML training to our AML, customer facing, and other relevant employees, and conduct regular independent audits of our AML programs. Our AML screening is conducted using a mix of automated and manual reviews and has been structured to comply with regulations in various jurisdictions. We collect required information through our new account opening process and screen accounts against databases for the purposes of identity verification and for review of potential negative information and appearance on government sanction lists, including the Office of Foreign Assets and Control, Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons lists and several other global, United Nations, European Union (“EU”) and other non-U.S. sanction lists. Additionally, we have designed and implemented restrictions to prevent certain types of high-risk activity, including potentially manipulative patterns of trading or higher risk patterns of money movement. We generate and review a sophisticated suite of surveillance reports and queues to identify potential money laundering, market manipulation or abuse, fraud and other suspicious activities.
Dodd-Frank Reform Act
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act imposes strict reporting and disclosure requirements on the financial services industry. We maintain a robust system for evidence of our supervisory review of controls over financial reporting and management monitors accounting and regulatory rulemaking developments for their potential effect on our financial statements and internal controls over financial reporting.
Business Continuity Planning
Federal regulators and industry self-regulatory organizations require regulated firms to maintain business continuity plans that describe what actions firms would take in the event of a disaster (such as a fire, natural disaster, climate-related event or terrorist incident) that might significantly disrupt operations. We have developed business continuity plans that describe steps that we and our employees would take in the event of various scenarios. We have built backup capabilities for key operations performed at our regional offices in North America, Europe and Asia that would be utilized in the event of a significant outage at our main data center or primary office locations. In addition, we continue to strengthen our technical infrastructure and have built redundancy of systems so that most operations and critical job functions can be handled from multiple offices or remotely.
Foreign Regulation
Our international subsidiaries are subject to extensive regulation in the various jurisdictions where they have operations. The most significant of our international subsidiaries are: IBC, registered to do business in Canada as an investment dealer; IBUK, registered to do business in the U.K. as a broker; IBIE, registered in Ireland as an investment firm; IBKRFS, registered to do business in Switzerland as a securities dealer; IBI, registered to do business in India as a stock broker; IBHK, registered to do business in Hong Kong as a securities dealer; IBSJ, registered in Japan as a financial instruments firm; IBSG, registered in Singapore as a capital markets firm; and IBA, registered to do business in Australia as a securities dealer and futures broker. See the “Net Capital” section above in this Item 1, for regulatory requirements related to our foreign subsidiaries.
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.