Dear IBKR Client,
With the outbreak of open military hostilities between #Russia and #Ukraine, and the announcement by governments around the world of sanctions and other retaliatory actions to be applied against Russia, we want to restate our prior warnings regarding assets and investments in your account that may be significantly impacted by either market and/or geopolitical events.
Investment products with sensitivity to the Russian securities and debt markets experienced extraordinary volatility in the past several days. Continued volatility of this extreme scale should be considered in your investment decisions. Ongoing volatility in energy and commodity markets can also be expected. Changes to the exchange/statutory or #IBKR margin policies may occur with little or no advance notice.
Clients holding positions in Depository Receipts (ADR/GDR) or derivative securities (ETFs, closed end funds, etc) that are exposed to the Russian or Ukrainian markets may be prevented from any transactions in these instruments if sanctions are applied that impact the ability of these issuers of these securities to operate normally.
Clients with positions directly on the #MOEX exchange are reminded of the possibility that #sanctions will be applied within the international banking infrastructure that could interfere with an orderly exit of positions and delivery of sale proceeds back to their IBKR accounts. Sales proceeds could be frozen in Russia for an indeterminate period.
Clients with Russian residency (or residency in the parts of Ukraine subject to sanctions imposed by various governments) may be blocked from accessing their IBKR account, or effecting transactions (including deposits or withdrawals). Clients should also consider the possibility of a technical block applied to the international internet infrastructure impacting the ability to access your IBKR account(s).
The above list of risks is not comprehensive. We strongly urge all clients to recognize that the current situation between Russia/Ukraine is a military conflict of a substantial scale. There are few precedents for what could occur that would create risk or problems to investors.
In no case will IBKR be responsible for losses or damages of any nature resulting from political or market driven impacts, so we urge all IBKR clients to consider their exposure to this conflict and to take immediate steps to mitigate such risks as they deem appropriate.