Hi all! Today Interactive Brokers removed trade permissions on US ETFs.
Are you experiencing the same?
Oops, now I am also getting the same message 
Same here… I hope they will revert it!
Response received from customer service doesn’t look very good… Anyone else got this?
We are a global broker and we have different entities for different locations. Account are opened on the basis of the Country of Legal residence of a client.
We can see that your account is opened under IB - UK entity
European residents and residents of Switzerland whose account is opened under IB - UK entity classified as “Retail” investors are subject to MiFID regulations which prevent them from transacting in certain products where the issuer does not offer the required product disclosures (known as KIDS).
It is possible to be reclassified from Retail to Professional once certain qualitative, quantitative and procedural requirements are met.
Qualitative Requirements: we must conduct an assessment of your expertise, experience and knowledge to ensure that you are capable of making your own investment decisions and that you understand the risks involved.
Quantitative Requirements: we must ensure you have satisfied two of the following criteria:
1.You have carried out trades in significant size (EUR 200,000 or greater) on the relevant market at an average frequency of 10 per quarter over the previous 4 quarters;
2.Your entire portfolio including cash (and positions not held with IBKR) exceeds EUR 500,000;
3.You have worked in the financial sector for at least 1 year in a professional position.
Procedural Requirements: if you believe you meet the requirements to be reclassified as a Professional, you can submit a request to change your status in Client Portal by selecting the Settings menu followed by Account Settings and Configuration. Click on the Configure (gear) icon next to “MiFID Client Category” and follow the steps on the screen. Please note:
Depending on your situation you might be requested to upload documentation of portfolios held or trades executed away from IBKR supporting your request;
You will be presented with the “Professional Client Notification” document which explains the protections and investor compensation rights you will lose from being classified as Professional.
If you believe that you would qualify as a professional then you can request to be re-categorized as a Professional Client in Account Management under Settings > Account Settings > MiFID Client Category.
However please note you can trade ETF’s other than U.S. ETF’s. You can use the “Advanced Market Scanner” in the TWS, select European Stocks and XETRA ETF as an exchange.
You can also visit online search engines for EU listed ETFs such as www.justetf.com or www.extraetf.com. Any ETF you finds there you will be able to trade, you would only needs to copy and paste the ISIN into the TWS.
Please refer to the following link for more information on MiFID categorization:
https://ibkr.info/node/3298
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So if I understand correctly, if we have less than 500k we will no longer be able to invest in all the US products that do not provide the necessary documentation?
18 years old, no salary now, 15k at IBKR… it’s going to be a long time until 500k 
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Activate Plan B!
Next stock options expiration date: May 19th!
Or is it possible to execute calls if we are blocked from buying ETFs directly?
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Just make the 40 trades (above 200k) in a year and work one year in the financial sector - and you don’t need the 500‘000.
They probably refer to FinSA. Art. 4 describes client classes including the “Retail” and “Professional” clients. Art. 5 expands on opt-in/out for changing your class. According to art. 5 para. 1:
According to art. 5 para. 2:
Which also makes you eligible if you have CHF 2 million. But seems to indicate that IBKR is not in compliance because for letter a CHF 500’000 is required in any case.
I fear, they’re referring to MiFID II, Annex II, client categorisation and opt-up possibility, unfortunately. The UK has onshored that legislatin. The Swiss rules you copied would have been significantly more user friendly.
Might depend on settlement: is it cash or physical?
Or maybe IBKR would only allow cash settlement to you?
Do you guys know if you can even sell US domiciled ETFs?
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Yes, Sell button is active.
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These are standardized instruments traded through a centralized exchange. And they are physically settled. IB can’t affect their settlement. What they can do is prevent you from buying options. But it seems to be not the case. And it seems that EU investors are doing it already.
P.S. anyway someone should try it first 
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Before buying stock options, we should probably wait until this settles out and we get something a little more official from IB.
Stock options will be great for VT for some investors (definitely not everybody), but an ETF like VOO means investing about 40K at once which almost nobody can do.
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Is IB correct in saying that this is also a requirement for Swiss residents?
Can you still buy them today?
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Swiss residents are certainly not subject to MiFID regulations solely on the basis of being a Swiss resident. However, it’s conceivable that the MiFID regulations adopted by the UK apply to all customers of IB UK independent of their residence. I don’t know whether IB UK is indeed required to do this by UK law or whether they simply treat Swiss residents the same as everyone else to keep it simple for them.
As of this morning I’m also affected. I’ve requested a change in MiFID client categorization, as I believe I fulfill the requirements.
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I had all my open orders for VTI, VXUS and VT automatically cancelled this morning for the reason of “no trading permission”. Annoying.
You can try and request the trading permissions again in the mobile app. You then get different warning messages indicating why you cannot have certain permissions.
One of my warnings was that my liquid net worth had to be higher than my account equity. I have updated that setting now and will see what happens after it is changed.
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Has it finally happened?
Is it described what position? Is working in IT in a bank sufficient?