Interactive Brokers (NASDAQ:IBKR), an American online brokerage firm, has announced its partnership with the payments company, Wise Platform to offer existing clients new payment options when they fund their trading accounts.

Interactive Brokers Chooses Wise Platform as Payment Partner

Following today's launch, Interactive Brokers clients can now choose to 'Pay with Wise' allowing them to convert their local currency to a currency supported by Interactive Brokers at the mid-market exchange rate, without hidden fees or markups, within the IBKR platform. Currently, Wise offers access to 150 international markets and an option to save money on transfer fees.

Additionally, clients can directly transfer from their linked Wise account balances and may receive their funds in the selected currency in just seconds. According to the company, 50% of all global Wise transfers are instant, arriving in less than 20 seconds.

"With the Wise integration, we can offer account funding in more local currencies, enabling greater participation in global markets, diversification of investments, and added protection against local economic uncertainty – all on Interactive Brokers' single unified platform," Steve Sanders, the EVP of Marketing and Product Development at Interactive Brokers, commented.

These features collectively help minimize transfer fees and reduce the time required for Interactive Brokers clients to move funds between their bank accounts and trading accounts.

The Interactive Brokers website shows that the fee for transferring funds using Wise Balance is probably fixed and amounts to $0.39. Funds are immediately available for trading when they appear in the account, while they can be withdrawn after three business days. IBKR notes that it receives 5.5% of the 'transfer fee' collected and remitted by Wise for all cross-currency transfers completed through IBKR's interface.

Currently, Interactive Brokers has a client base of more than two million customers, primarily retail traders, who trade from more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Steve Naudé, the Head of Wise Platform, believes that the newest integration "will make investing in global stocks through IBKR's platform affordable and fast."

In November 2022, Wise revealed a 63% surge in total income for H1 FY23, spanning from April to September, reaching £416 million. The company concluded the period with a pre-tax profit of £51.3 million, witnessing a 173% growth. In January 2023, Interactive Brokers reported its latest report for the three-month period ending 31 December 2023, showing a record profit of $1.31 per share.

Interactive Brokers Expands its Reach and Offering

As part of its international expansion and the introduction of more products, IBKR required a new payment partner. The broker announced its partnership with Sinopac Securities, a Taiwan-based trading company, in mid-February, becoming their primary international broker. Sinopac caters to retail and institutional clients, enabling them to trade ETFs, stocks, and fixed-income products from the US market. With the help of IBKR's product offerings, Sinopac can now extend its reach to 90 additional global stock markets.

In the meantime, the company has expanded its cryptocurrency offerings to the Asian markets as it launched crypto trading services in Hong Kong. Adding digital assets came with a growing interest among the broker's clients. The available options are restricted to just two cryptocurrencies : Bitcoin and Ethereum, which hold the top two positions in terms of market capitalization. Furthermore, the US-based broker will enable professional investors within the autonomous jurisdiction to trade these two digital assets.

Two months ago, IBKR launched the Stock Yield Enhancement Program (SYEP) Derivatives for traders and investors from Australia. It aims to provide additional income opportunities for eligible clients. Interactive Brokers Australia's SYEP Derivatives program allows clients to lend their stock shares in return for cash collateral deposits, which reflect the potential income generated from loaning the shares.