I received this message from ib about movement of the account from uk to ???? ( Ireland or not identified Central Europe ???) and in the middle a IB Luxembourg en passant. and also. "and we will be writing to you shortly to let you know whether your account is eligible for transfer to IBIE, IBLUX or IBCE, and to seek consent for the move." then nothing sure on the horizon. nevertheless "You do not have to transact through IBUK on the basis set out above. Please recall that you are required under our contractual terms to maintain alternative trading arrangements and we encourage you to temporarily rely on those arrangements for any trading activity that IBUK might not be able to service. Additionally, you have the option to move the positions in your account (i.e., your cash, securities and contracts) to another broker outside the Interactive Brokers Group." aka better have another broker and at the end " However, if you do not choose to move elsewhere, and continue to enter orders through your IBUK account during any Delay Period, we will assume that you understand, acknowledge and agree to do so as set forth above, as requested by you at your own initiative." is for you clear ? maybe I'm dumb and at the end where will land my money ?
They sent this to avoid being fined by financial regulators if they still provide services to EU citizens after Brexit. It's legal language. You can still trade with them, but, since their "financial passport" to EU expires at the end of the year, any trades you do with them will be considered your own initiative, not something they promoted or invited you to do. In this way they can still provide services while being legally covered. You will be able to trade whatever you have permission for, but you won't be able to request new product permissions after the end of the year. Everything will be back to normal once they transfer the accounts to the new European locations.
IB is sending emails these days to european customers to migrate from IBUK to EU countries. Where do they want to relocate you? IBIE (Ireland), IBLUX (Luxembourg) or IBCE (Hungary)? FAQ: https://ibkr.info/node/3587
IBIE here but IB says their application in Ireland as an investmebts form is notbfinalized yet, only in 3rd and final phase. Yet they ask/offer to migraye now. Any idea what will happen if they don t get approval or it s delayed ?
They sent me proposal for IBCE (I would prefer IBIE). As I can see, If you don't do anything you can stay at IBUK, but you won't be able to buy anything, just sell existing investments. If they don't get approval in Ireland till 31.12.2020, they might migrate clients to IBLUX or IBCE and re-migrate them later to IBIE.
Today I received a proposal to migrate to IBIE. From "The Documents": "IBIE is a member of the Irish Investor Compensation Scheme (“ICS”), which provides compensation to eligible investors should IBIE become insolvent. Private individuals, that are clients of IBIE, will be eligible to claim under the ICS for up to EUR 20,000 under the limits and conditions set out in the Investor Compensation Act 1998 (as amended)." Compared to the previous $500k/250k protection limit, €20k seems to be ridiculously low to me. That means that if you have $100k on your account, and IBIE defaults, Irish law will refund you up to a maximum of €20k.
That's mean only for the cash in your account and not the individual shares of companies you may have, is that correct ?
Got an email too "We now invite you to transfer your account from Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited (“IBUK”) to Interactive Brokers Central Europe Zrt. (“IBCE”). We hope the information we have set out below is helpful and makes clear what we are proposing, why we are proposing it, and what you need to do to continue to do business with us. "
Pretty nice from IB to do this. Most other brokers would terminate your account and leave you hanging. IB is setup all over the world and can move clients around as insane governments shoot themselves in the foot