From listening to the earnings calls over the years I formed the impression that they have a credit committee that decides which bank to put the money on deposit with.
sorry, got truncated in copying http://www.interactivebrokers.com/en/general/poll/index.php?sid=7549 this one should work
Peterfy is still IB biggest stockholder and if he had to do some shady deals it would probably have been done in the last 30 years. But the rule still remains, dont put all your eggs in the same basket.
wtf are you talking about? 40-1 on the bonds of a distressed nation on the middle of a crisis. you'd better check yourself out, before the market does. AAA means shit, you can wipe your butt with the rating when it implodes.
Fraud can happen at IB, at any company. Not even by management, it could be a rouge trader who knows how to cover his tracks until up to the end, Taking out your own insurance with Llyods of London to cover the money in your IB account if you have way above SIPC limits might be one way to get extra protection. No idea how much it will cost you, or what the minimum amount they would consider worthwhile.
You can feel safe with IB, they autoliquidates real time when there is a margin deficit, that's somehow makes them the safest broker in the U.S. (MF didn't have an autoliquidation policy...)
All currency accounts are guaranteed. Offcourse over 99% of accounts are in PKR (Pakistani Rupee). Then majority of remaining 1% are USD accounts. There are also some EUR accounts. In the last 60+ years (since Pakistan became independent), we never had a single bank failure. A couple of times banks did closed down (due to losses) but all deposits were returned/transferred to other banks immediately