Is Interactive Brokers Safe and Legit?

Key Safety Factors

• It’s a public company. Interactive Brokers Group trades on Nasdaq under the ticker IBKR. Listed firms must publish accounts every quarter, so the numbers are public rather than hidden behind a brass nameplate in an offshore jurisdiction. Its accounts are also audited annually. It’s rare for brokerages to be publicly listed.
• Client money is ring-fenced. Cash and securities are generally held in segregated accounts, separate from the firm’s own funds.
• It serves millions. More than 5 million client accounts sit with Interactive Brokers. A long, public track record at that scale is hard to fake.
• Its apps are well rated. Its mobile applications on both the App Store and Google Play are highly rated by users, with 4+/5 ratings from thousands of mobile users.

Interactive Brokers isn’t spotless:

• In 2025, it was hit with an $11.8 million penalty by the US OFAC for services in sanctioned regions, plus a smaller $125,000 FINRA fine for municipal bond disclosure.
• In 2023, the CFTC ordered IBKR to pay $20 million for record-keeping and supervision failures stemming from staff using unapproved messaging apps.
• In 2018, the FCA fined it £1,049,412 for weaknesses in market-abuse controls and failures to report suspicious client transactions.
• Its Trustpilot rating, which consists of thousands of reviews, is okay but trails many top-rated brokers, who often have ratings of 4+/5. In particular, some users report high levels of dissatisfaction with the customer support.

None of those point to client funds necessarily being at risk, but they’re worth knowing before you sign up.

Is Interactive Brokers Regulated?

We rate its safety highly because of who watches it. The group runs separate legal entities in different countries, and the one you contract with depends on where you live. It is one of fewer than 5% of brokers we’ve tested that operate with so many only ‘Category A’ regulators.

Here’s how the main entities and their regulators break down:

Regulator classification is based on BrokerListings.com’s regulator scoring system.

SEBI registration for Interactive Brokers

A Few Things To Keep In Mind

Even though Interactive Brokers is one of the most well-regulated and trusted brokers, there are still practical considerations:

• What that oversight provides depends on the entity. For example, US clients of Interactive Brokers LLC get SIPC protection up to $500,000 (with a $250,000 cash sub-limit), plus extra cover through Lloyd’s of London. UK clients under the FCA entity may qualify for FSCS protection up to £85,000 in limited circumstances, while EEA clients under the Irish entity are covered by the Irish Investor Compensation Scheme up to €20,000. Always check which entity your account sits with, as the safety net changes accordingly.
• Interactive Brokers is essentially still owned and controlled by the founder, who has a strong record, but who does have high levels of influence over the company.
• No broker is risk-free because trading isn’t. Leverage and volatile markets can quickly clear out an account.
• Crypto held through IBKR’s spot service is custodied at Paxos, outside the broker, and isn’t covered by SIPC.
• Higher leverage and lighter protections can apply if you trade through certain non-UK, non-EU entities.