Oct 15, 2026 earnings call — Dividend hike and product expansion
Company raised dividend to $0.60 a year while reporting record pretax profit and a 78% pretax margin.
Revenue $1.9B (est $1.9B) · EPS $0.67 (est $0.67)
Key quotes
"In Brazil, we launched trading of B3 futures on financial indexes cryptocurrencies, and commodities."
"We also launched autonomous AI trading, which allows eligible clients to connect the AI agent of their choice to their IBKR account and authorize it to trade autonomously."
"We estimate the effect of a 25-basis point increase or decrease in the benchmark Fed funds rate to be $83 million higher or lower respectively, in annual net interest income."
Analyst Q&A 9
Dividend size and ad spending
Q (Patrick Moley · Piper Sandler): He asked why the dividend jumped to $0.15 and whether this indicates a new payout policy. He also asked about early results from the xCash advertising partnership and whether ad spend signals more digital customer acquisition.
A: Management said they follow a guideline of paying dividends between 0.5% and 1% of market value and are trying to catch up to that guideline. They confirmed they are leaning more into digital advertising, and early results from the xCash partnership have been mixed: recent customers are higher value but fewer in number.
"We have generally been following the guideline of paying dividends between 0.5% and 1% of the market value, and we have fallen somewhat behind." — Thomas Pechy Peterffy (FOUNDER)
Where to grow and TaxAware assets
Q (James Yaro · Goldman Sachs): He asked which geographies offer the biggest market share gain and where IBKR is underpenetrated. He also asked how large the TaxAware long-short product is for RIAs and future aspirations.
A: Management said they would not single out one geography and that the global platform can grow in both established and new markets, serving different client types without major cost increases. They said TaxAware had approximately $300 million in assets by the end of the quarter, they are just starting to attract RIAs, and they expect the product to grow due to their margin, lending, and automation strengths.
"Well, in terms of assets by the end of the quarter, it was approximately $300 million." — Milan Galik (CEO)
Trading slowdown and Japan rollout
Q (Daniel Fannon · Jefferies): He asked if any customer or regional slowdown looked concerning and whether any trends could affect growth. He also asked about the uptake and expected contribution from recent product rollouts in Japan.
A: Management said there was nothing concerning about client activity; trading varies and some earlier IPO-related activity was delayed, and they expect volatility to rise into the midterm elections which tends to increase trading. For Japan, they are migrating U.S. affiliate accounts to the Japanese affiliate, rolling out margin in a compliant way, have finished the PASCI second-factor authentication rollout, and are focused on faster digital onboarding and KYC before they can compete more significantly.
"We have very recently finished the rollout of the so called PASCI, which is another type of second factor authentication method, which is supposed to be resistant to phishing attacks." — Milan Galik (CEO)
RIA clients and new trading products
Q (Benjamin Budish · Barclays): He asked what types of RIAs are on the platform and whether the firm can win RIAs from other custodians. He also asked about plans for binary options and single-stock KPI products.
A: Management said tax-aware products are mainly used by financial advisers and suit bigger accounts, and they are improving RIA onboarding and integrations to attract custodial business. On new products, they view the Cboe KPI announcement as exciting, don’t yet know the exact go-live date, and are working to offer those products to clients.
"So the tax aware products, they are mainly carried by the financial advisers." — Milan Galik (CEO)
RIA flows from competitor policy change
Q (Steven Chubak · Wolfe): He asked if a competitor's $100 million minimum for RIAs is driving interest and whether IBKR can be a home for smaller RIAs. He also asked about momentum in the introducing-broker pipeline compared to prior quarters.
A: Management said the competitor move (mid next year) should push under-$100 million RIAs to find new homes and that IBKR is one of the obvious choices, so they are preparing to be welcoming. Regarding the introducing-broker pipeline, they said it looks similar to recent quarters with many integrations in progress and that their full-stack, global multi-asset offering positions them well to attract firms.
"We are 1 of the obvious choices, if not the obvious choice." — Milan Galik (CEO)
Autonomous AI trading and prediction markets
Q (Kyle Voigt · Wells Fargo): He asked what share of clients will be eligible for autonomous AI trading and whether AI will raise trades per account. He also asked about progress and adoption of prediction market venues.
A: Management said they started a very limited rollout and had only invited clients who previously used their human-in-the-loop AI connector, and they plan to expand eligibility over the next few weeks. They reported approximately 3,000 clients were invited so far, expect AI adoption to raise trading activity over time as clients grow comfortable, and said they added Kalshi, CME, and FOREX.com and are integrating Polymarket to increase product range and liquidity.
"We had only invited clients who had previously used our human in the loop AI connector." — Milan Galik (CEO)
Dividend cut risk and margin yield drivers
Q (Brennan Hawken · BMO): He asked if a falling market cap could push yield above the guideline and trigger a dividend cut, and he asked how much the margin yield rise was due to base-rate changes versus currency/mix shifts and sustainability.
A: Thomas said he does not think they will ever cut the dividend and could not imagine a situation to do so. Paul said the yield change is a combination of factors, with more contribution from non-U.S. currencies this quarter, but the primary driver was the size of the balance increases, up 47% year on year and another 8% on the quarter.
"I do not think that we will ever cut the dividend, at least not seeing any situation that I can imagine sitting here right now." — Thomas Pechy Peterffy (FOUNDER)
Tax-aware economics and KPI UI
Q (Brian Bedell · Deutsche Bank): He asked whether tax-aware strategy economics mirror current margin and lending economics. He also asked if the UI will change to show company KPI prediction markets.
A: Management said the economics would be similar to the rates they offer to large balances and large accounts today. On KPIs, they explained Cboe’s KPI contracts are structured as binary options (calls and puts) and they will present them on the prediction market interface traders use while also making them available on regular option screens.
"The economics would be similar to the rates that we offer to large balances and large accounts." — Milan Galik (CEO)
Trading pullback and other country expansions
Q (Christopher Allen · KBW): He asked whether the trading pullback was broad across customer segments or concentrated. He also asked if there are other countries with similar expansion opportunities as Japan.
A: Management said the pullback was broad based across segments. They said there are other country opportunities, but they would not discuss them now to avoid showing competitors the blueprints and will announce when products can be delivered.
"There are, but we would rather not discuss them so as not to show the blueprints to some of our competitors that are probably listening to us." — Milan Galik (CEO)