Interactive Brokers has confirmed it has established an entity in Singapore and opened a new office in the Marina Bay financial district.
With the addition of Singapore, Interactive Brokers now has nine entities globally in the US, Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Luxembourg and the UK, serving more than 876,000 client accounts in over 220 countries.
Interactive Brokers said that currently more than 37% of its accounts are from Asia, an increase of 27% since 2017. The firm will now offer trading to clients in Singapore in stocks, options, futures, currencies, bonds and funds via a single investment account.
“As our client base continues to rapidly increase in Singapore, it was important to create a presence on the ground to support and service active traders and the wealth management community,” said David Friedland, MD of the Asia Pacific region for Interactive Brokers. “As a critical wealth management and financial hub in Asia, our expansion in the region reflects that importance and keeps up with account growth.”
“Many of our institutional clients such as variable capital companies, family offices and hedge funds wanted to engage a broker licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and we have delivered. We appreciate the support received from MAS during our application phase, particularly for their responsiveness in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.”
Interactive Brokers Singapore is led by Kevin Tan as chief executive and Guillaume Roux-Chabert, who heads up sales for the business. The broker has also worked closely with the Singapore Exchange (SGX) over the past two decades, first as a market maker and now as a broker.
“We have worked closely with Interactive Brokers for many years promoting the Singapore markets to international customers. [Interactive Brokers] has been a pioneer in developing global electronic trading and we are delighted to have them on the ground to partner for growth together,” Chew Sutat, senior MD for global sales and origination at SGX, concluded.