Funds resting in the IB UK (UK Regulated "-F") account have to be Internally Transferred by the account holder back to the IBLLC Securities account in order to convert that cash to a different currency or have those funds included in the securities Buying Power. Forex conversion trades can only be executed within the IBLLC Securities account. Securities Buying Power is displayed as a multiple of the Available Funds in your securities account. Information regarding Available Funds in your Account Window and Buying Power can be found in our Users' Guide and the IBKR Knowledge Base.
The IB UK Regulated "-F" account holds positions in non-US Index options, CFDs and OTC Metals. IB UK clears all client activity through IBLLC with the exception of physical commodities (i.e., gold and silver) and those CFDs which are not exchange listed. To differentiate the IB UK activity cleared as IB UK from that which is introduced to IBLLC, an internal bookkeeping account known as IBUKL has been created to house IB UK activity and is designated as your account number ending with the letter "-F". As IBLLC and IB UK are separate legal entities, your account's excess funds will not be eligible to be automatically moved by IB between the accounts with the exception of the need to meet a margin requirement. Under such circumstances, IBKR will automatically move the funds necessary to meet a margin requirement between the IBLLC and the IB UK accounts. The Excess Funds Sweep feature available in Client Portal will only move unused cash between the IBLLC Securities and the IBLLC Commodities accounts. The Excess Funds Sweep choices available in Client Portal allows customers to select where they want the unused funds moved. The unused cash can be left where last used (the default setting), swept to Securities, or swept to Commodities.