Interactive Brokers pays $1 million to settle with CFTC
Interactive Brokers overcharged its customers a total of $710,828.14.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged Interactive Brokers LLC for failing to diligently supervise its employees’ handling of exchange fees charged to customers.
The registered futures commission merchant was ordered to pay $710,828.14 in disgorgement with credit for money paid to affected customers, and a $300,000 civil monetary penalty, as part of its settlement with the CFTC.
IBKR clients paid higher exchange fees
The CFTC found that, from January 2015 to December 2021, Interactive Brokers’ employees failed to accurately assess exchange fees for customer trades.
Because they failed to implement necessary changes to exchange fee schedules, the brokerage firm charged customers executing certain spread trades the non-member exchange fee applicable to outright trades.
Customers were charged the higher fee, while IBKR paid the exchange the lower fee applicable to spread trades. As a result, Interactive Brokers overcharged its customers a total of $710,828.14.
Interactive Brokers has already refunded the aumount overcharged to current customers and notified former affected customers about how to obtain their overage refund.
Interactive Brokers launches crypto in Hong Kong via OSL
Interactive Brokers has tapped OSL Digital Securities to provide exclusive virtual asset dealing services in Hong Kong.
OSL Digital Securities is a Type 1 and 7 Securities and Futures Commission (SFC)-licensed digital asset brokerage and trading platform for professional investors.
The partnership marks a significant evolution of the Hong Kong digital asset markets, with one of the largest SFC-regulated online brokers serving Hong Kong professional investors teaming up with the SFC-licensed institutional digital asset brokerage and exchange.
OSL will empower Interactive Brokers to offer virtual asset dealing services directly to its professional investor trading clients in Hong Kong, powered by OSL.
Hong Kong has one of the world’s highest concentrations of institutional and professional investors, as well as a clear regulatory regime around digital assets, making it an ideal location for this landmark arrangement as digital assets continue to be integrated into the global financial services ecosystem.
Investors worldwide are rallying to digital asset markets, and the collaboration with OSL comes at a key moment in the development of the regulated digital asset ecosystem in Hong Kong.
