Can US-based Interactive Brokers accounts receive SEPA transfers?

External question — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: Franck Dernoncourt Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/155648 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. I wonder whether an Interactive Brokers (IBKR) account based in the United States can receive a SEPA transfer. The bank sending the SEPA transfer is country that is part of the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA)· The transfer is in euros. My inconclusive research so far: I read How to Deposit EUR to Interactive Brokers but I have no ideas whether this applies to Interactive Brokers accounts based in the United States. The US financial institutions Bank of America, Charles Schwab (US accounts), E*TRADE Securities LLC , Fidelity, Merrill Edge, TD Ameritrade and Vanguard cannot receive SEPA transfers, which makes me further doubt whether US-based Interactive Brokers accounts can receive SEPA transfers. SEPA transfers are typically only used in SEPA countries. I called IBKR but the customer service had no ideas. I'm hoping someone with an IKBR account here has some concrete experience with it (vs. someone making guesses on the phone).

External answer — Personal Finance Stack Exchange Author: Franck Dernoncourt Original post: https://money.stackexchange.com/a/156236 License: CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ Adaptation: HTML converted to plain text; contact email addresses removed. US-based Interactive Brokers accounts can receive SEPA transfers. Instructions can be found on https://ndcdyn.interactivebrokers.com/AccountManagement/AmAuthentication?action=TransferFunds : One has to first indicate the intent to transfer: The SEPA transfer is sent to a German IBAN: DE82 5011 0800 6161 5353 87 Once the SEPA transfer is completed, one may find the deposited euros on Portfolio -> Cash report : Note that one's Interactive Brokers account number should be mentioned in the SEPA transfer. I added it to both the recipient last name and the reference (2 redacted rectangle in the screenshot below), and the SEPA transfer was successful: Make sure to add the Interactive Brokers account number in the reference. Explanation: The recipient name and the reference both have a small character limit in MT103 messages , Which is the message format used by SEPA (and SWIFT). In my case, since my name is "Franck Dernoncourt", if I add my Interactive Brokers account number to my name as the beneficiary, the account number won't show up in my name, as shown as the excerpt of an MT103 message (given to me by Interactive Brokers by contacting their customer support): :72:SCT//ORDP//NAME/Franck Dernoncourt/ REMI/Sent from Revolut/IACH/4AU19QA IWJ That's because the line :72:SCT//ORDP//NAME/Franck Dernoncourt/ already maxed out its char limit ( 35 characters ), so the entire name "Franck Dernoncourt [Interactive Brokers account number]" got trimmed down to "Franck Dernoncourt". The "Sent from Revolut" is the default reference with Revolut when it sends a SEPA transfer: make sure to change it to the Interactive Brokers account number of the beneficiary. I forgot my Interactive Brokers account number in the reference in one of my transfers from Revolut to Interactive Brokers and Interactive Brokers was still able to process the transfer, but this may add some delay (it didn't in my case). Note that using an Interactive Brokers account purely for currency exchange may result in some features of the account getting suspended .

Can US-based Interactive Brokers accounts receive SEPA transfers?

Can US-based Interactive Brokers accounts receive SEPA transfers?

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