Jan 15, 2010 U.S. OPTIONS EXCHANGE REGULATORY FEE (ORF) Starting February 1, 2010, a new pass-through exchange fee, referred to as the Options Regulatory Fee (ORF), will be collected by IB on behalf of the U.S. option exchanges. The fee will be assessed to customer orders at a rate of $0.014 per U.S. exchange listed option contract and is in addition the IB commission charge as well as any existing exchange fees. Its stated purpose is to assist in offsetting exchange costs relating to the supervision and regulation of the options market (e.g., routine surveillance, investigations, and policy, rulemaking, interpretive and enforcement activities). Itâs important to note that while only four of the seven exchanges (BOX, CBOE, ISE & PHLX) have implemented the ORF to-date, each is assessing a fee regardless of the exchange on which the transaction occurs. Accordingly, the $0.014 fee represents an aggregate of each of the four individual exchangeâs fee and is applied regardless of the market of execution. This charge will be reflected on the Activity Statement as a Regulatory Fee. In addition, while it is not known at this time whether the remaining three exchanges intend to implement the ORF and, if so, at what rate, the aggregate fee is subject to change should any elect to do so. Should you have any questions regarding this fee, please feel free to contact our Customer Service Center. For contact details and service hours, click here or select the Help & Contacts link located in the upper right hand corner of our website.
It is not just IB charging this ORF. From optionshouse http://www.optionshouse.com/rates/fees/ "The following options exchanges assess an Options Regulatory Fee (referred to as the "ORF fee") on options transactions executed by its members: Chicago Board Options Exchange ("CBOE") - $0.0040 per contract; International Securities Exchange ("ISE") - $0.0035 per contract; Boston Stock Exchange ("BOX") - $0.0030 per contract; and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) - $0.0035 per contract. All exchanges have a $0.01 per trade minimum. The effective rate of the ORF fee is $0.014 per contract. Fee charges will be rounded to the nearest penny."