Interactive Brokers Q3 2026: vs Q2, commissions -$71M, interest +$97M

Interactive Brokers is an automated global broker. Individual investors, hedge funds, proprietary trading groups, financial advisors and introducing brokers use it for securities, commodities, foreign exchange and prediction markets on more than 175 markets. It earns money in two main ways: commissions on trades, and net interest income on the cash customers hold and the margin loans they take. In the third quarter of 2026 it reported $1,914 million of net revenues, up 16% from a year earlier (our arithmetic), and diluted EPS of $0.69, against $0.59.

Against the second quarter, the headline numbers barely moved. Net revenues rose 1% (our arithmetic) and diluted EPS stayed at $0.69. Underneath, the two engines went in opposite directions. Commissions fell by $71 million as customers traded less than in a busier Q2, and net interest income rose by $97 million as margin loans and customer cash kept growing and yields edged up (our arithmetic). The quarter is a test of what happens to this business when trading cools, and in Q3 interest income more than covered the drop.

Interactive Brokers Q3 2026 results at a glance

$ millions, except per share	3Q26	2Q26	3Q25
Commissions	602	673	537
Net interest income	1,154	1,057	967
Other fees and services	88	87	66
Other income	70	79	85
Net revenues	1,914	1,896	1,655
Non-interest expenses	418	440	343
Income before income taxes	1,496	1,456	1,312
Net income available for common stockholders	314	312	263
Diluted EPS	$0.69	$0.69	$0.59
Adjusted diluted EPS	$0.67	$0.69	$0.57
Adjusted net revenues	1,872	1,883	1,610

The adjusted figures remove the company’s currency diversification strategy and mark-to-market on investments, which management says are not indicative of core results. This quarter those items added $42 million to GAAP net revenues, so adjusted net revenues were lower than reported.

Did Interactive Brokers issue guidance for Q3 2026?

No. Interactive Brokers does not issue quarterly revenue or earnings guidance; its second-quarter release (Form 8-K filed July 21, 2026) contains no outlook for the third quarter. The yardstick is therefore the year-ago quarter: net revenues rose to $1,914 million from $1,655 million, up 16% (our arithmetic), and diluted EPS rose to $0.69 from $0.59 ($0.67 from $0.57 as adjusted).

Trading cooled from Q2

	3Q26	2Q26	3Q25
Customer DARTs (thousands)	4,273	4,824	3,616
Commission per cleared commissionable order	$2.59	$2.64	$2.70
Cleared avg. DARTs per account (annualized)	168	207	195

Daily average revenue trades (DARTs), the company’s count of customer orders, fell 11% from Q2 to 4.27 million but were still 18% above a year earlier. Customer stock volumes fell 17% from Q2 and 24% from a year earlier, options contracts fell 7% from Q2, and futures contracts fell 10% from Q2 while rising 13% from a year earlier. Commissions fell 10.5% from Q2 (our arithmetic) to $602 million.

The year-over-year commission increase of 12% needs one qualifier. The company attributes it to 18% higher DARTs and higher regulatory fees, which are passed through to customers. On the expense side, execution, clearing and distribution fees rose 46% to $134 million, which the release attributes mainly to a $30 million increase in regulatory fees due to a higher SEC Section 31 transaction fee rate. The release does not say how much of the commission increase those fees account for, but part of the commission growth is money collected and paid on, not extra profit.

Accounts kept growing while each account traded less. Accounts rose 8% from Q2 to 5.58 million, but annualized DARTs per cleared account fell to 168 from 207. Customer equity divided by accounts came to about $173,000, against about $179,000 in Q2 (our arithmetic), which is consistent with new accounts starting smaller.

Net interest income carried the quarter

	3Q26	2Q26	3Q25
Net interest income ($M)	1,154	1,057	967
Avg. customer margin loans ($M)	104,032	96,596	70,805
Avg. customer credit balances ($M)	176,566	171,674	141,763
Net interest margin	1.99%	1.93%	2.16%
Margin loan yield	4.25%	4.10%	4.60%
Customer credit balance cost	2.31%	2.23%	2.64%

The company says net interest income rose 19% from a year earlier “primarily on higher average customer margin loans and customer credit balances.” Average margin loans were about 47% higher than a year earlier and about 8% higher than in Q2 (our arithmetic). Net interest income was about 60% of net revenues, up from about 56% in Q2 (our arithmetic).

The year-over-year rise came from volume, not rates. The net interest margin fell to 1.99% from 2.16% a year earlier, and the margin loan yield fell to 4.25% from 4.60%. Against Q2 the yields moved up slightly, and the margin rose by six basis points (our arithmetic). The company computes its net interest margin on a broader net interest measure that also counts interest-like income booked in other lines, $1,191 million in Q3, rather than on the $1,154 million income-statement figure shown in the table.

Securities lending is larger than its own line suggests. The table shows $65 million of net interest from securities borrowed and loaned. The company estimates that counting the interest on the related cash collateral would make total securities lending net interest income $427 million, against $314 million a year earlier. That reclassification would not change total net interest income.

Costs, margin and who owns the profit

Non-interest expenses fell to $418 million from $440 million in Q2, with execution fees and employee compensation both lower. The GAAP pre-tax margin was 78%, against 79% a year earlier, the same as reported and as adjusted. Income before income taxes was $1,496 million.

Net income was $1,348 million, but only $314 million of it is available to holders of the listed shares. Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. owns 26.6% of the operating company, IBG LLC. The remaining 73.4% is held by IBG Holdings LLC and appears as noncontrolling interests, which took $1,034 million. EPS is calculated on the listed company’s share only. Common stockholders’ net income rose 0.6% from Q2 (our arithmetic), less than pre-tax income at 2.7% (our arithmetic), as income tax expense rose to $148 million from $118 million. The release does not explain the tax increase.

Other income fell 18% from a year earlier to $70 million, mainly a $50 million decline from investing activities, partly offset by a $36 million increase from the currency diversification strategy. The company keeps its net worth in a basket of 10 currencies it calls the GLOBAL. That strategy lowered comprehensive earnings by $4 million this quarter.

The dividend and the balance sheet

The board raised the quarterly cash dividend to $0.15 per share from $0.0875, an increase of about 71% (our arithmetic). It is payable on December 14, 2026, to holders of record on December 1. At the new rate, the dividend is about 22% of this quarter’s adjusted EPS (our arithmetic).

Total equity was $23.3 billion ($23,251 million) at September 30, up about $1.0 billion from June 30 (our arithmetic). Customer margin loans ended the quarter at $105.2 billion, up 36% from a year earlier, and customer credits at $186.2 billion, up 20%.

What to watch in Q4

• DARTs vs accounts. Accounts grew 8% in the quarter while DARTs fell 11%. The fourth quarter will show whether Q3 was a pause after a busy Q2 or a lower level of activity per account.
• Margin loan growth. Net interest income growth over the past year came from balances, not yields. Average margin loans grew about 8% from Q2; whether that pace holds is the main driver of the interest line.
• Net interest margin. It rose to 1.99% from 1.93% in Q2 but is below the 2.16% of a year earlier. Its direction will show how much rate changes are offsetting balance growth.
• Regulatory fees. The higher SEC Section 31 rate raised execution fees, and pass-through regulatory fees are part of commissions. Read commission growth net of that pass-through.
• The tax line. Income tax expense rose faster than pre-tax income in Q3. Watch the 10-Q for any explanation.

Quick answers

What were Interactive Brokers’ Q3 2026 earnings?

Diluted EPS was $0.69, or $0.67 as adjusted, against $0.59 ($0.57 adjusted) a year earlier and $0.69 in Q2. Net revenues were $1.91 billion ($1.87 billion adjusted), and net income available for common stockholders was $314 million.

How much net interest income did Interactive Brokers make in Q3 2026?

Net interest income was $1,154 million, up 19% from $967 million a year earlier and up from $1,057 million in Q2. The company says the increase came primarily from higher average customer margin loans and customer credit balances. The net interest margin was 1.99%.

Did Interactive Brokers raise its dividend?

Yes. The board raised the quarterly cash dividend to $0.15 per share from $0.0875, payable on December 14, 2026, to shareholders of record as of December 1, 2026.

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Sources and method. Every company figure is Interactive Brokers’ own disclosure, read directly from SEC EDGAR and linked above. The third-quarter and year-ago income statement, adjusted figures and their reconciliation, the commission, interest, fee and other-income explanations, operating data (accounts, customer equity, DARTs, commission per order, DARTs per account, contract and share volumes), net interest margin, average balances and yields, the securities lending estimate, the ownership split of IBG LLC, the GLOBAL currency effect, total equity, the dividend increase and the balance sheet come from Exhibit 99.1 to the Form 8-K filed 2026-10-15 (accession 0001381197-26-000154) for the quarter ended 2026-09-30. The second-quarter income statement, net interest margin, yields, average balances, total equity and the prior $0.0875 dividend come from the second-quarter release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1, filed 2026-07-21, accession 0001381197-26-000118). The results were filed with the SEC at 4:01 pm ET on 2026-10-15 (Form 8-K acceptance time on the EDGAR filing index), after the US market closed; the company had announced on September 24, 2026 that the release would be issued at approximately 4:00 pm ET, and the release scheduled its conference call for 4:30 p.m. ET the same day.

No consensus estimate is included. Whether the quarter beat or missed is judged only against the year-ago quarter, because Interactive Brokers issued no quarterly guidance (its second-quarter Form 8-K, filed 2026-07-21, accession 0001381197-26-000118, was checked for one). This piece makes no claim about the share-price reaction.

Our arithmetic, labelled as such: the 16% year-over-year and 1% quarter-over-quarter net revenue growth; the $71 million commission decline (also in the headline) and the 10.5% fall from Q2; the $97 million net interest income increase (also in the headline); customer equity per account (~$173,000 and ~$179,000); the ~47% and ~8% growth in average margin loans; net interest income as ~60% and ~56% of net revenues; the six-basis-point margin increase; the 0.6% and 2.7% growth in common stockholders’ net income and pre-tax income from Q2; the ~71% dividend increase and the ~22% ratio of the dividend to adjusted EPS; and the ~$1.0 billion increase in total equity. These are approximations, not reported numbers. The interpretation (that interest income offset the trading slowdown, that part of commission growth is pass-through, and that new accounts appear to start smaller) is our analysis, not a company statement or a forecast.

Related: TSMC Q3 2026, also reported that day; Webull Q2 2026 and Coinbase Q2 2026, other brokerage and trading platforms; and Morgan Stanley Q3 2026, whose Wealth Management business also serves individual investors.

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