Interactive Brokers Review for Canadian Traders

Is Interactive Brokers safe? CIRO membership, Interactive Brokers Canada Inc.

Yes, I judge Interactive Brokers Canada Inc. safe for a Canadian retail client: the CIRO dealer directory lists it as an Investment Dealer, the CIPF member list carries it as a current member, and your contract is with this Canadian entity.

CIRO registration and global licences

I read the CIRO dealer directory and it lists Interactive Brokers Canada Inc. as an Investment Dealer (CIRO dealer directory, read September 26, 2026). It acts as an order execution-only dealer and gives no investment advice or recommendations. It serves Canadian residents only and names no excluded province; Quebec residents are served, with Quebec complaint timelines, a Derivatives Act (Quebec) forex disclosure and Quebec governing law. Its registered office is 1800 McGill College Avenue, Suite 2106, Montreal, Quebec, H3A 3J6 (Client Agreement).

CIRO enforcement history

I searched CIRO’s enforcement proceedings, active and concluded, and found two concluded settlements against Interactive Brokers Canada Inc. and no other. In 2009 an IIROC Hearing Panel (Quebec District Council) accepted a settlement with a global fine of $40,000 for four contraventions: books and records from 2002 to 2009, failing to evidence control over securities held for it, misreporting client free credits as cash held in trust at an acceptable institution in monthly financial reports to March 2009, and capital reporting on securities held by an affiliate from October 2007 to January 2008. In 2013 a panel accepted a settlement with a fine of $50,000, in which the firm admitted failing to meet its trading supervision obligations under UMIR 7.1 and Policy 7.1 between November 2007 and April 2008, over a client’s manipulative closing up-tick trades. Each settlement also ordered $10,000 in costs.

Where a Canadian client’s money is held

Your cash is segregated in designated accounts with several financial institutions, and no institution holds more than 5% of total client amounts (Client Agreement). The agreement does not name the institutions. The cash is invested in short-term instruments fully guaranteed by governments, and the reconciliation is carried out and reported daily.

Who a Canadian client contracts with

The Client Agreement governs the relationship between you and Interactive Brokers Canada Inc. (Client Agreement, s.1). CIPF coverage applies only to accounts at CIRO Members, and its policy states that “Accounts with entities other than a CIRO Member (but including, for greater certainty, a CIRO Member’s affiliates or related organizations) are not Accounts for the purposes of this Policy” (CIPF Coverage Policy, s.C.2). Interactive Brokers LLC is not on CIPF’s current member list (CIPF current member list). Interactive Brokers LLC, a US affiliate registered with the SEC as a broker-dealer and with the CFTC as a futures commission merchant, performs execution, clearing and custody under an Omnibus Clearing Agreement, while Interactive Brokers Canada Inc. keeps account opening, deposits and withdrawals, margin, statements, and all client service and complaints. On a forex trade, Interactive Brokers Canada Inc. is your counterparty and is permitted to offset the trade with an affiliate, another client quoting into its system, or a third-party bank.

How to complain, and who hears it

You complain by Web Ticket in Client Portal or to the Designated Complaints Officer at [email protected]. The firm acknowledges complaints about possible rule breaches within 5 business days and gives a final response within 90 calendar days, or 60 calendar days for Quebec residents (IB Canada Client Complaint Resolution Process).

This page covers Interactive Brokers Canada Inc., the CIRO dealer a Canadian contracts with, while our Interactive Brokers review covers the brand worldwide.

Interactive Brokers client money protection and dispute scheme

I read CIPF’s coverage page before relying on it. According to CIPF, an individual is covered for “$1 million for all general accounts combined (such as cash accounts, margin accounts, TFSAs and FHSAs)”, plus a further $1 million across all registered retirement accounts combined and a further $1 million across all RESPs combined (About CIPF coverage). CIPF protects property held by a member firm for a client when that property goes unreturned after the firm’s insolvency, and the value of that property carries no guarantee from CIPF. Every CIRO dealer on our Canadian list is a CIPF member, so this coverage is not this firm’s distinction.

You take an unresolved complaint to OBSI, the Ombudsman for Banking Services and Investments, within 180 days of the firm’s final decision, or once the firm has not answered within its response period. OBSI does not take matters that went to arbitration or civil litigation. The firm also names CIRO, arbitration through ADR Chambers, in Quebec the Canadian Commercial Arbitration Centre, and free AMF mediation for Quebec residents (IB Canada Client Complaint Resolution Process).

Interactive Brokers at a glance: 13 key facts

I have pulled the facts I verified from the firm’s Canadian disclosures and the regulator’s own lists into the table below. Read the source column beside each row before you deposit, because it tells you which document carries each figure and where I found it.

Interactive Brokers spreads and commission

The firm advertises spot currency spreads as narrow as 1/10 pip (0.1 pips), with dealer quotes passed through without markup, from quotation streams of 17 large foreign exchange dealers (Commissions: Spot Currencies). It publishes no typical or average EUR/USD spread, only the “as narrow as” claim.

Spot currencies

You pay 0.20 basis point x trade value for a monthly trade value up to US$1,000,000,000, stepping down to 0.15, 0.10 and 0.08 basis point at higher monthly volumes. The minimum per order is US$2.00 at Tier I, calculated off trade value and charged in your account’s base currency. GST and PST apply separately where applicable. Note that the firm publishes its forex commission minimum in USD, not CAD. The IdealPro minimum order is US$25,000; smaller orders are odd lots, generally executed within 1 pip of the best interbank bid and offer (Client Agreement).

What it costs to trade with Interactive Brokers

What a trade costs depends on the commission schedule above plus financing. On a CAD debit balance up to CAD 130,000 a Canadian client pays 3.657% a year, a benchmark of 2.157% plus 1.5%, accrued daily and posted monthly, with lower spreads on larger balances (Margin Rates and Financing). A negative currency balance created by a currency trade pays this loan rate. The auto currency conversion service typically adds or subtracts 0.03% to the exchange rate, with no separate commission; manual conversions pay the spot forex commission. I checked each of these figures against the firm’s Canadian pricing pages.

Other fees a Canadian trader should check

Two withdrawals are free per calendar month; from the third, a CAD bank wire costs CAD 12.00 and an EFT costs CAD 2.00, with third-party bank fees extra (Other Fees). There is no inactivity fee on Individual, Joint, Trust and Org accounts, and IBKR charges no custody fees (Required Minimums). Interactive Brokers charges no technology, software, platform, or reporting fees (Client Agreement, Addendum 11). The market data pricing page lists IBKR Currencies market data, Global, as fee waived (Market data pricing).

Interactive Brokers funding methods and withdrawal times

A Canadian account is funded from a Canadian bank, and the routes differ in speed. EFT deposits are free. When I read the funding page, I found no withdrawal timetable on it, so a withdrawal is planned without a stated landing time.

Deposit methods

The deposit routes are EFT once a bank is connected, bank wire, online bill pay, cheque with IBKR as the direct payee, and transfer of positions from another broker (Fund Your Account). Cash is not accepted and third-party deposits are generally rejected. After an initial EFT deposit, trading opens five business days later; the firm says later deposits “may be available immediately”, and EFT is limited to $100,000 per seven days. A bank wire arrives as quickly as one business day or less, set by the bank. Online bill pay takes one to six business days.

Withdrawals

The funding and other-fees pages give no withdrawal processing times, so there is no stated landing time for your money. The fee schedule sits in the costs section above.

Interactive Brokers account types and minimum deposit

The account types are Individual, Joint and Trust accounts, and RRSP, spousal RRSP, TFSA and FHSA registered plans. Currency trading and margin are allowed in Individual, Joint and Trust accounts only, and not in the registered plans. Individual accounts ask for good or extensive product knowledge and at least 100 executed trades (Individual accounts). I read these suitability terms on the firm’s accounts page before writing this section.

Minimum deposit

The account minimum is US$0.00 on Individual, Joint, Trust and Org accounts (Required Minimums).

Account currencies

A base currency is set by the client in a multi-currency account (Client Agreement). The funding page accepts deposits in AUD, GBP, CAD, CNH, CZK, DKK, EUR, HKD, HUF, ILS, JPY, MXN, NZD, NOK, PLN, SGD, ZAR, SEK, CHF and USD (Fund Your Account).

Interactive Brokers trading platforms

You trade on Trader Workstation (TWS), IBKR Desktop, IBKR Mobile, IBKR GlobalTrader, IMPACT and Client Portal on the web (Client Relationship Disclosure).

FXTrader FXTrader is the TWS interface for currency trading, so your forex orders run inside the same workstation as your other markets.

Interactive Brokers execution speed and slippage

I state no fill time and no slippage figure for Interactive Brokers Canada Inc., because execution speed was not measured for this dealer. Our global broker test scores the brand worldwide, and that work carries no Canadian execution figure you can rely on here.

Interactive Brokers markets

Your markets include cash equivalents, bonds, Canadian, U.S. and foreign equities including fractional shares and warrants, ETFs, options and futures including ForecastEx forecast contracts, and currencies, leveraged and non-leveraged (Client Relationship Disclosure). There are no CFDs and no mutual funds. Because the firm offers no CFDs, it offers no crypto CFDs; its Client Agreement carries a risk disclosure for cryptocurrency futures and options, which are listed products. The firm states it is not a money service business and does not allow you to use an account for currency conversions only.

Interactive Brokers leverage and margin for Canadian clients

The firm’s own table, headed “Full List of IB Canada Regulator Margin Rates for Forex”, states EUR.USD maintenance margin of 3.0% (33.3:1), and USD.CAD and CAD.USD at 2.0% (50:1), its highest leverage in the table. The table gives no CAD or USD base-account split and cites no rule number. I read the margin table and the Client Agreement together, and I found no negative balance protection stated: forex trading risks losses greater than the amount a client has on deposit, and the client is liable for any deficit, including collection costs (Client Agreement).

The CIRO margin rule is Investment Dealer and Partially Consolidated Rules section 5460(1): the minimum client account margin for a foreign exchange position is the spot risk margin plus the term risk margin, with the spot risk margin rate set for each currency group and raised by a surcharge when a currency’s volatility runs above its group’s threshold, and section 5468(1) applies this to client accounts. I also read CIRO Rules Bulletin 25-0232, effective August 13, 2025, which sets the spot risk margin rate for the euro at 3.00% in both CAD-base and USD-base accounts, the U.S. dollar at 2.00% in a CAD-base account and the Canadian dollar at 2.00% in a USD-base account, for use with sections 5461 to 5469 of the IDPC Rules.

How Interactive Brokers compares to CMC Markets and FOREX.com

CMC Markets Canada Inc. scores 64.6 out of 100 in our global broker test, a global score. Its Standard account carries a EUR/USD minimum spread of 0.5 with no separate FX commission, and its FX Active account offers spreads from 0.0 pips on six majors plus commission of $2.50 per lot per side. GAIN Capital - FOREX.com Canada Ltd. scores 67.6 out of 100, also global. Its Standard account quotes EUR/USD variable spreads “as low as 1.0” with no commission, and its RAW Pricing account offers EUR/USD from 0.0 plus US$7 commission per US$100,000 traded per side, on FOREX.com platforms and MT5 only.

Both CMC Markets Canada Inc. and Interactive Brokers Canada Inc. are CIRO dealer members reviewed for Canadian traders, and the CMC Markets review for Canadian traders covers the first of them. The FOREX.com review for Canadian traders covers GAIN Capital - FOREX.com Canada Ltd. the same way. To see where each of these firms sits among the dealers a Canadian client is able to contract with, read our guide to forex brokers in Canada.

What other review sites say about Interactive Brokers

These are ratings of Interactive Brokers from other platforms, read on the date shown and expressed on each platform's scale, so you can weigh them against our own score.

Platform	Rating	Volume	Read on
Trustpilot	3.1 / 5	5,490	September 10, 2026
TradingView	4.2 / 5	39,080	September 10, 2026
App Store (United States)	4.5 / 5	11,446	September 10, 2026
Google Play	4.5 / 5	75.2K	September 10, 2026

Interactive Brokers holds a Trustpilot rating of 3.1 out of 5 from 5,490 reviews, checked September 10, 2026.

On TradingView, Interactive Brokers is rated 4.2 out of 5 from 39,080 ratings, checked September 10, 2026. The TradingView profile for Interactive Brokers shows 390K traders, the count of those who have connected an account through TradingView. The Best 2025 badge appears on Interactive Brokers' TradingView profile.

Interactive Brokers's app IBKR Mobile - Invest Worldwide is rated 4.5 out of 5 from 11,446 ratings on the United States App Store, checked September 10, 2026.

IBKR Mobile is rated 4.5 out of 5 on Google Play (United States store) from 75.2K reviews shown worldwide, checked September 10, 2026.

Our Interactive Brokers score follows published criteria, and the third-party ratings listed above play no part in it.

Should you open an Interactive Brokers account?

Yes, I recommend Interactive Brokers Canada Inc. to Canadian traders who want low spot forex commissions, a wide range of markets, and no advice. It suits you best when you place your own decisions and you want an order execution-only dealer.

The limit to weigh before you deposit is funding. EFT deposits hold you out of the market for days after your first deposit and are capped per week. Before you commit, check the CIRO dealer directory entry for Interactive Brokers Canada Inc. and read the firm’s Canadian site, so you confirm its Investment Dealer category and its order execution-only terms for yourself.