Interactive Brokers Providing Access to Tel Aviv Stock Exchange

Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (IEX:IBKR), an automated global electronic broker, announced that IBKR institutional and retail clients can now trade stocks on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). IBKR will connect clients to TASE via a banking intermediary based in Israel.

The “gateway to the world’s markets”, Interactive Brokers serves more than 607,000 clients worldwide and operates on more than 120 exchanges in 32 countries. The company enables clients to fund their account in 23 currencies and trade assets from a single account in multiple currencies, including the Israeli shekel.

“Interactive Brokers is truly a global money management platform. We aim to provide clients with unparalleled access to the world’s financial markets, including smaller markets that larger financial institutions often don’t serve,” said Thomas Peterffy, CEO of Interactive Brokers. “Due to our international scope and advanced technology, we can offer opportunities for investors to access smaller markets efficiently and cost effectively.”

“Providing our clients with access to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange extends IBKR’s global reach and lets both retail and professional clients invest in Israeli companies,” he said.

Ittai Ben-Zeev, CEO of TASE, said, “We are pleased with IBKR’s decision to facilitate TASE trading for their clients worldwide. Since Interactive Brokers is one of the world’s leading international brokerage firms, we view their move to provide their clients better access to TASE as a vote of confidence in the Israeli capital market and TASE. We have set the enhancement of TASE’s international ties and footprint as a strategic priority and are dedicated to providing global firms, such as IBKR, the infrastructure and services necessary to best serve the global investor’s needs.”

Mr. Ben-Zeev added, “We welcome international investors and encourage them to take part in Israel’s economic success. This is a direct result of our strategic plan and aspiration to encourage international investors to trade on TASE, to expand trading volumes and improve liquidity in the Israeli market. Over the past year, we have taken significant steps to further facilitate international investor activity on TASE. We launched co-location services to accommodate high-frequency/low latency trading. We have contracted with the global network provider, BSO, for direct connectivity between London and TASE and we have significantly eased the criteria for remote TASE membership. We hope to see more global entities follow IBKR’s lead in easing their clients’ access to TASE.”