Introduction

Interactive Brokers classifies third party entities as any organization offering a platform or medium of trading to individuals outside of the organization. Please note that interested groups that would like to register as a third party with Interactive Brokers must have an established platform with other brokerage firms, or a full proof of concept with an integration using the Client Portal API.

Examples of this would include auto-traders or robo-advisors, public mobile applications, and groups forwarding market data.

For organizations that meet the criteria above and have an interest in integrating with Interactive Brokers, we would ask that you please email api-solutions@interactivebrokers.com.

To give you a sense for the process ahead:

1. Our onboarding team conducts the initial vetting process. Once we have collected a sufficient amount of information, we will complete a preliminary review. Estimated time to complete this step is 2-3 weeks. Assuming we are able to proceed, we will send your application to our Compliance team for review.
2. IBKR Compliance conducts an enhanced due diligence review on all third party applicants, followed by a three tier approval process. Estimated time to complete Compliance related reviews and tasks is 3-6 weeks.
3. If Compliance approval is reached, our Legal team will generate the WebAPI agreement which we will send to you for review and signature. In parallel, we will ask you to provide public keys and a CallbackURL which will be required in to generate your consumer key and finalize the setup. Detailed instructions for this process will be provided once we reach this stage. Estimated time for our side to complete the aforementioned work and processes is 3-5 weeks.

The above timelines are all estimations and can vary. We recommend providing as much information as possible up front. Not doing so can exaggerate timelines.

During the enhanced due diligence reviews conducted by our Compliance teams, they will expect to see that 3rd Party Vendors looking to offer their services to our clients have a completed website with details on all of the features/services that will be provided and finalized details on their offering. This typically includes a clear user work flow for all components and details on their functionality, capability.

As mentioned previously, should Compliance approval be reached we would be able to generate a live consumer key for you and any significant changes to the offering after it has been approved (like addition of trading functionality) would require additional review and approval from our Compliance Teams before being offered to IBKR clients.

Please be aware we expect 3rd Parties offering automated trading solutions would hold applicable registration with financial authority in all regions they plan offer the service, unless you are able to provide support (i.e. a legal opinion) as to why the business provided would not require registration that location. Additionally, the offering will need to be reviewed and approved by Compliance teams in all regions you intend to support IBKR clients.

The above timelines are all estimations and can vary. We recommend providing as much information as possible up front. Not doing so can exaggerate timelines.