Sweep Program
Safeguard Your Assets with our Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program
Our Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program allows eligible IBKR clients to obtain up to $2,500,000 of FDIC insurance4 in addition to existing $250,000 SIPC coverage4 for total coverage of $2,750,000. Clients continue earning the same competitive interest rates1 currently applied to cash held in IBKR accounts. IBKR sweeps each participating client's free credit balances daily to one or more banks, up to $246,500 per bank, allowing for the accrual of interest and keeping within the FDIC protected threshold. Cash balances above $2,750,000 remain subject to safeguarding under the SEC's Customer Protection Rule 15c3-3, backed by the firm's equity capital, which is $16.1 billion2.
Program Benefits
- Competitive interest rate1, same as for cash deposits in your IBKR account;
- Convenience of having your IBKR account cash balance3, FDIC-insured deposits and investments appear on one statement;
- Excess cash above the program limit of $2,500,000 remains at IBKR and is protected under client protection regulations. Competitor programs often include a spill-over bank for excess funds, which may not be FDIC-insured.
Who Is Eligible?
- IBKR Pro accounts that are Individual accounts without a designated transfer-on-death beneficiary, IBKR Pro accounts that are IRAs (excluding IBKR Asset Management IRAs) and organizational accounts are eligible to participate in the program.
- In the future IBKR may, at its discretion, add additional account types to the program.
- Eligible IBKR clients can enroll in the program by logging into their account and accessing "Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program" under the account settings option. Activation generally takes place overnight.
How It Works
- When you join the Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program, deposits are made on your behalf into interest-bearing accounts at one or more FDIC-insured banks within the program. If your program balance nears the FDIC limit at one of these banks, additional cash is deposited at the next bank on a list of approved banks, thereby ensuring clients don't exceed current limits. By using multiple banks versus a single bank, the program is able to provide up to $2,500,000 of FDIC insurance for your deposits.
- Eligible cash balances consist of USD free credits, generally defined as cash in your IBKR account in excess of margin requirements and short stock value, above the first $250,000 reserved for SIPC coverage and up to the program limit of $2,500,000. We designed our proprietary sweep algorithm to seamlessly integrate with your IBKR account and optimize FDIC-insurance coverage without disrupting your regular trading activity. The daily sweep computation factors in your USD cash, account equity, margin requirements, short stock value, projected cash settlements, and initial $250,000 SIPC buffer to determine the maximum free credit excess to sweep.
FDIC Insurance
FDIC insurance limits apply to all of your eligible deposits at a bank. The FDIC insurance limit for all ownership categories in the Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program is $250,000 per program bank. This is why it is important that clients monitor the assets they have at all banks and opt out of banks on the IBKR Priority Bank List where clients have assets not known to IBKR, so that IBKR does not sweep otherwise eligible balances into that bank. If you have other deposits at one or more of our program banks, you may exclude any bank from holding your program balances so you do not exceed current FDIC limits. For more information about FDIC coverage and different FDIC-defined ownership categories, visit the FDIC website, FDIC website.
Disclosures:
- On any given business day:
- funds in the program earn interest at the prior business day's rate, applied on an Actual/365 basis, to the current business day's cash balance; and
- funds held at IB earn interest at the prior business day's rate, applied on an Actual/360 basis, to the prior business day's balance.
- Includes Interactive Brokers Group and its affiliates.
- IBKR account cash balances in your brokerage account do not receive FDIC protection.
- For more information regarding FDIC or SIPC coverage and program eligibility details please visit FDIC and SIPC, respectively.
Please note: Any withdrawal of funds allocated to the Insured Bank Deposit Sweep Program is subject to an extra day of processing.