My cousin submitted an application to IB on Monday, April 21, 2008. He received an email asking about criminal history. He promptly responded (non-violent, non-financial, not involving moral turpitude crime and received probation). I thought this was unusual, for I know of some IB clients with records of violent and financial crimes, and they all have accounts. As of today, he has not received any answer--acceptance or rejection. We thought that IB processed applications quickly--24 to 48 hours. Any comments from the IB staff or board members appreciated.
IB--How Long to Process Application?
- Thread starter jwcapital
- Start date
typically it does take 24-2-48 hours to approval,but because of this-
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=125589
they may implement something new.
http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=125589
they may implement something new.
Because of Anti-Money Laundering laws, and the CIP (Customer Identification Program) from FINRA Clearing firms and or BD's must do background check on all new accounts. A crime conviction is grounds for denying an account. Firms don't want to take the chance of some government agency wanting to check the BD's files because they are building a case against this person for some new crime he has committed. That requires man power of the BD's employees, and takes the employees from their daily responsibilities of their job at the BD.
No, the rules were clear about that, they only have to do this on new accounts that were opened after these rules were put in place. Don't have to check backgrounds of customer accounts opened before the rules became in effect. That would be too much of a burden for the firms.
I completely agree with what UDon'tKnowMe has already stated.
I know someone that's also waiting for approval although I know nothing about his background.
My point is that most likely IB has implemented new background check procedures and it would be too much of a headache to go back and research the backgrounds of all current clients before the new background check procedure.
I wouldn't be surprise if more brokers do the same soon because its long overdue in my opinion.
Simply, you yourself said you know individuals with a criminal history and have accounts with IB yet your cousin is not one of them.
However, you haven't disclosed what type of criminals they use to be nor do I know what type of criminals IB is willing to do business with.
I'm sure (guessing) IB would except a client that has a conviction of assault in comparison to not wanting a client that spent time in prison for check stealing, forgery, money laundering, embezzlement, tax invasion et cetera.
I guess Wesley Snipes can't be a trader when he gets out of prison.
:eek:
Has your cousin called IB to find out when he can expect to get an answer about his account status???
Besides, what's the rush...the market will be here tomorrow.
By the way, how many violent criminals do you personally know and how many criminals do you know that was financial related that are traders???
I'm just curious because I know a lot of traders (retail and institutional) and none of them have criminal backgrounds.
Maybe I should say none of them have disclosed to me they've been convicted of a crime in their past.
Could be an interesting ET poll where types of crimes are polled to see how many ET members has been convicted or never caught.
Mark