IB policy seems to use the FATF as a baseline for AML risk "In determining whether a country is associated with elevated AML risk, consideration is given to information provided by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an intergovernmental organization which promotes measures for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other related threats to the integrity of the international financial system and other public AML indices." https://ibkr.info/article/3441 The current FATF grey list, issued on 21 February 2020, includes the following countries: Albania, the Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Cambodia, Ghana, Iceland, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Panama, Syria, Uganda, Yemen and Zimbabwe As far as public AML indices there is the https://baselgovernance.org/basel-aml-index/public-ranking And this is not just IB policy, I had another broker a number of years ago close my account because Panama had been added to the FAFT grey list. And a contact I have at another broker told me that DD checks in international accounts went up this year and it became harder to open accounts. Its the new normal, adapt or die
Well IB hasn´t contacted me yet, which is great, but still looking to open a second account, mostly because of what you guys are writing and it looks unclear whether I´ll be able to keep bank/securities accounts in HK open after moving back to Europe (one bank said I can´t switch to european adress and phone number, but it should work if I just add them to Mainland china details, they have been closing european residents accounts because of compliance issues - private banking accounts. Even if it works this year I´m afraid those accounts soon will come to an end ) Such a nightmare compliance has become over the last 10 years, now every country hop is source of problem, non resident accounts much harder toopen and maintain, and with covid one can´t even fly anywhere to try and fix issues. Anyway Tradestation has been around for a while and used to offer a bunch of markets and be open to international clients. Is it still a solid company with similar offers, allowing online account opening ? I don´t care much about transaction fees as there will be few movements, but might need to transfer positions and cash from HK banks and stock markets, and later be able to transfer them elsewhere. Also any advice on strong european banks with good online banking that open accounts to residents of other EU countries (not much interested in small online banks that freeze account which do 50k eur transactions although I expect few transactions). Thinking it´s gonna be easier to keep more money in the EU if I stay there for a few more years. Again can´t really travel to open anything at the moment, even within the EU. Spanish resident and those are welcome in very few places right now. Don´t plan on wiring much money to Spain either, especially from HK and China it is not a good idea here, besides the banks I know being unpractical and expensive for large amounts plus I suspect it is not easy to wire funds out of the country (even within EU countries some banks ask for supporting documents to process rather small wires, at least in France, but I doubt Spain is much better) Fwiw IB has overall been good over the years to me, besides during the EURCHF crash, but already a too big part off my wealth with them, would rather not wire any more sizeable amount there. All declared money here in Europe, although obviously if I need to show source of wealth dating back to a decade plus it´s gonna be headache - actually considering the size of corporate docs and statements, especially IB´s, any time range would be a hassle if I need to supply docs.
Btw I suspect all EU customers have received the email from IB concerning Brexit and moving accounts to Luxembourg (from memory) and a yet to be accepted Irish entities, it appeared in the email that the capacity of the Luxembourg entity was limited, hence IB might need to close EU accounts if the Irish entity doesn´t get its license on time.
I'm a EU based investor using IBKR for the last 13 years managing my personal assets. Like a lot of the others in this thread, I've experienced a similar issue at IB with their new "AML purge". They sent me a notice that in 3 days I have to provide them 'source of wealth' documentation. I have explained to them that my wealth (substantial) was generated two decades ago in the first dot-com boom and showed them their own statements for 13 years (which is what I have kept). Ironically they don't even keep documentation for more than 7 years and you'd be hard pressed to find banks and businesses that do. I have sparse documentation here and there of what I have scanned and kept over the years but nothing substantial enough of my previous business that seems to suffice their requirements. I find IB to be extremely rude sending predefined canned answers without seemingly even reading what I wrote to them. It's as if they want to quickly check and uncheck boxes on accounts to clear their queue of AMLs. They make it very difficult to get anyone on the phone. I switched from private bank to IB to get rid of ridiculous fees, and that has worked amazingly for the past decade or so however I now regret having that personal contact and bank relationship (at a five/six figure fee cost a year) Anyone offer some advice besides transferring my business to another broker?
Do you have your tax returns? Or receipts of tax payments made related to the dotcom gains? Or at least a certificate from the tax revenue service from your country saying that you are in good standing? I keep my tax return files (they are electronically submitted in Brazil) forever in the cloud in case I need them. I have all my returns since 2004, I'm not sure you can do that same but I bet it would help
My suggestion is close your IB account. Oh wait....that's a drama as well where you'll be told to jump through hoops.
I only keep records for 7 years, just like the financial institutions. I used to live in a country that used to be a tax haven back in the 2000s when I was running my businesses. Last 13 years+ have been just capital gains and dividends income, mostly from the IB account itself.