Interactive Brokers Group Inc Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Brennan Hawken - BMO Capital Markets Corp - Analyst : Paul, you spoke a bit in the beginning about how you're starting to see hard-to-borrow specials come back on the back of capital markets activity ramping. Could you talk about how the trajectory of that played out in the quarter? What impact we could expect if we continue to see capital markets activity ramp as is broadly expected? And what kind of benefits we could expect from that?

Question: Brennan Hawken - BMO Capital Markets Corp - Analyst : Okay. And then a couple of years ago, I seem to remember Thomas making comments that he was bullish on prospective AI leading to more velocity in trading and turnover. You can sort of see chatter around this in some of the various websites and blogs and whatnot. Are you actually seeing evidence of this in your business yet? Or is that still something that has yet to play out?

Question: Brennan Hawken - BMO Capital Markets Corp - Analyst : Yes. Several years ago, Thomas had suggested that AI would lead to higher trading volumes. So I don't know whether or not you have any visibility or any idea about whether or not that thesis is actually playing out, now that we see AI become much more broadly integrated into people's everyday lives.

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Maybe just first on the interest rate sensitivity to non-US balances. It looks like that stepped up a little bit from what you had disclosed last quarter. It also looks like for the last several quarters, the percentage of balances that are not in US dollars is going up. Just curious if you could unpack a little bit what's going on there. Any particular trends to be aware of and what is impacting that sensitivity going forward? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 16, 2025 / 8:30PM, IBKR.OQ - Q3 2025 Interactive Brokers Group Inc Earnings Call

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Got it. But nothing specific this quarter to the non-USD balances other than platform growth?

Question: Benjamin Budish - Barclays Services Corp - Analyst : Understood. Thank you for that. Maybe just a follow up. I was wondering if you could give us a little bit more color on ForecastEx. There's been some press suggesting that you've made a filing preparing to launch contracts on sports. I'm curious if you can comment to that. But maybe otherwise, it sounds like there's a lot of momentum there. Given the international customer base versus maybe what we see is a lot of headline noise in the US, what sort of products are seeing the most traction? And how are you thinking about the pace of product rollout from here? Thank you.

Question: Patrick Moley - Piper Sandler Companies - Analyst : Maybe just following up on the prediction markets and ForecastEx. Could you just maybe speak a little bit more to your strategy for growing that business, whether it's adding more broker partners? We've seen a number of JVs get announced in the space. What are your thoughts on how you're going to grow the number of users on that platform? Thanks.

Question: Patrick Moley - Piper Sandler Companies - Analyst : Okay, thanks for that. And then just a follow up, margin loans were up 20% quarter over quarter. Could you maybe just provide a little color on the breakout of the types of customers that drove that growth? Was it retail? Was it hedge funds? And then given some of the choppiness we've seen here month-to-date, what are your expectations around margin loan growth from here? Do you think it's sustainable? Thanks.

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : You've seen a smaller percentage of US clients over time. Could you just walk us through recent geographic client acquisition trends in your view? And then specifically, whether the regulatory environment in China around account opening has weighed on and will continue to impact your growth in this region.

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Great, thank you. You recently led a new funding round for HashNote. Could you just update us, to the extent there's anything new, on your aspirations in digital assets? And especially any update on the 30% limit as regards to what percentage of crypto customers can have in their accounts?

Question: James Yaro - Goldman Sachs Group Inc - Analyst : Sorry, yes. Sorry.

Question: Craig Siegenthaler - BofA Securities Inc - Analyst : So my question is on total account growth. I'm actually going to ask a similar question to last quarter. So at a May conference, Thomas talked about a potential deceleration account growth as -- and my question is, where is it? Because account growth is again showing no signs of slowing down through September.

Question: Craig Siegenthaler - BofA Securities Inc - Analyst : Got it. Thank you, Thomas. My thought is on crypto. More specifically with timing. So when will clients be able to transfer tokens in and out of their [IV care accounts]? And how will the rollout work by geography? Will some regions move faster? And I believe IBKR will end up offering a non-custodial wallet, just like some of the crypto exchanges offer today. REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. OCTOBER 16, 2025 / 8:30PM, IBKR.OQ - Q3 2025 Interactive Brokers Group Inc Earnings Call