How to transfer funds from your bank account to your Interactive Brokers account via an ACH deposit initiated by IB
Enter KB567 into the search engine for additional information regarding ACH deposits
How to transfer funds between your bank account and your Interactive Brokers account via an ACH initiated at your bank.
Enter KB567 into the search engine for additional information regarding ACH deposits.
How to deposit funds via a wire transfer
Enter KB834 in the Knowledge Base search engine for additional information on how to deposit funds via a bank wire transfer
Generally, an investor changing jobs or leaving the workforce may utilize either a Direct Rollover or Indirect Rollover election to continue their retirement savings outside of their employer-sponsored retirement plan. The Direct Rollover method transfers the assets directly from the retirement plan into the investor's IRA, avoiding the 20% mandatory IRS withholding. No assets are transferred directly to the IRA owner. This option to transfer retirement assets has no age limitations.
Cash and securities held within an employer-sponsored retirement plan, such as a 401(k) or 403(b) plan, may be re-located elsewhere, either in an IRA account or another employer-sponsored retirement plan. The plan administrator is required to provide a reasonable direct method of asset transfer. Completion of a Direct Rollover form issued by the administrator may be required, in some cases. Therefore, it is important to check with the plan administrator.
For those transfers that require a broker-supplied Direct Rollover form, Interactive Brokers provides a convenient Direct Rollover Transfer In Authorization form. Completing and mailing the form directly to Interactive Brokers will begin the transfer of cash balances only into a Traditional IRA, Rollover IRA, or SEP-IRA. Non-cash direct rollovers are currently not available.
Interactive Brokers will forward the Direct Rollover request to the plan administrator for processing. Funds may be transferred by either wire transfer or check directly to Interactive Brokers.
To initiate a Direct Rollover from your retirement plan, go to the Funds Management section of the Account Management Menu. Choose Cash Transfers for this Cash Deposit Transaction and select the method Direct Rollover (IRA) to initiate the process. Contact the Funds & Banking Group with any additional questions.
In compliance with Treasury Department Circular 230, unless stated to the contrary, any information contained in this article was not intended or written to be used and cannot be used for the purpose of avoiding tax penalties that may be imposed on any taxpayer.
A partial ACATS transfer exists when the customer elects to transfer only a select group of assets from one broker to another rather than the entire account. As this type of transfer requires that the customer specify those assets to IB, the Account Management interface through which notification is provided precludes the entry of any security not eligible to be carried by IB. This effectively minimizes the need for an asset review and accommodates a transfer time frame ranging from 2 to 4 business days.
A full ACATS transfer request will generally be completed or settled anywhere between from 4 to 7 business days. The actual time which any one request may take depends upon a number of factors, most notably being the speed at which the delivering broker responds to the initial request, the ability of the two brokers to successfully corroborate the customer’s account details (e.g., account title, account number, taxpayer identification number, etc.), whether the list of account assets requires adjustment due to the inclusion of securities not eligible to be carried by the receiving broker, and/or if the effect of the transfer would be to violate the receiving broker’s credit policy (i.e., create a margin deficiency).
Assets transferred to IB via ACATS are subject to a hold period of 10 business days, the count of which begins the day after the transfer has settled and ends at midnight of the 10th business day thereafter. Note that assets are often credited to an account holder’s equity and made available for trade prior to transfer settlement. The date at which a given ACATS deposit is eligible for withdrawal may be determined through the View Transaction History function within Account Management.
Instruments handled by the ACATS system include the following asset classes: equities, options, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, mutual funds and cash. It should be noted; however, that ACATS eligibility does not guarantee that any given security will transfer as each receiving broker maintains its own requirements as to which asset classes as well as securities within a particular asset class it will accept.
Account holders are encouraged to use the Contract Search link on IB’s homepage to assess transfer eligibility prior to initiating a full account transfer request.
The rejection of an ACATS transfer request is typically initiated by action of the delivering broker once that broker has had an opportunity to review the request and confirm the details of the account to be transferred. In the case of certain rejection notices (i.e., categories 1-5 and 10 below), the ACATS process affords the receiving broker (IB) a 24-hour window within which revised information may be transmitted and after which time the transfer request will require resubmission by the client. During this 24-hour window, IB will attempt to contact the transferring client in an effort to reconcile any discrepancies causing the initial rejection notice. Rejections generally fall into the following categories:
Rejections by the Receiving Broker:
10. Credit Violation - the result of the transfer if effected would be to place the account in margin deficit and subject to forced liquidation.
An ACATS transfer request typically takes 4 business days to complete and may take as long as 7 business days depending upon the circumstaces involved in the transfer. Outlined in the table below is a process flow of the transfer process, including typical timeframes for each stage of the process.
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Step
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Stage
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Description
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Result
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Time Frame
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1
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_
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Customer submits transfer instructions to IB via Account Management.
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Begins transfer process.
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Day 1.
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2
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Request
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Receiving broker (IB) electronically transmits request via ACATS.
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NSCC generates reports confirming transfer request to both IB and delivering broker.
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Day1 if Step 1 completed prior to 11:30 PM ET, else Day 2.
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3
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Request
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Delivering broker has up to 1 day to review transfer request for accuracy of account details and accept or reject.
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If validated, delivering broker submits asset list;
If rejected, delivering broker enters applicable rejection code.
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Day 1 to Day 3, depending upon timing of customer submission, each brokers input relative to the ACATS multi-batch processing cycles and the ability of the two brokers to corroborate the customer’s account details.
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4
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Review
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If transfer request was accepted by delivering broker, the receiving broker (IB) has up to 1 day to review asset list;
If transfer request was rejected by delivering broker, depending upon the nature of the rejection the receiving broker may have up to 1 day to resubmit request.
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If asset list was received, receiving broker (IB) can either accept the account, request adjustments (e.g., where asset lists include securities not eligible at receiving broker), or reject the account (e.g., where account is not in margin compliance);
If transfer request was rejected by delivering broker, receiving broker may correct and resubmit request or take no action and let request reject.
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Day 2 to Day 4, depending upon events as noted above as well as decision of receiving broker to accept the account or request adjustments.
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5
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Settlement Prep
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If receiving broker (IB) accepts the account the assets are staged and ‘locked’ for transfer.
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Neither the delivering nor receiving firm can adjust or delete the ACATS transfer. Settlement will take place next business day.
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Day 3 to day 6.
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6
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Settlement Close
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Assets begin to transfer.
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Day 4 to day 7.
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