Funding IBKR using MYR with Wise-Hassle Free

Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts can do that. –Norman Vincent Peale

Recently I received an email from IBKR informing me that Malaysians can finally fund their IBKR accounts using MYR. IBKR has worked with Wise to offer more currencies to fund your brokerage account.

If you are like me and invest in ETFs or foreign equity markets in foreign currency, the hardest part is funding your brokerage account. I use InterativeBrokers (IBKR) to buy my ETFs which are USD denominated and listed on the London Stock market ( LSE), unfortunately there is a very high cost involved if I use Malaysian banks to send the money to IBKR , therefore I have talked about funding IBKR through third party transfer such as Wise, Instarem HERE (via Wise), HERE (via Instarem) and HERE (via Wise).

However, there are some problems using the above methods. Firstly, you have to wait 3-5 days after the transfer before you can assess the money, ie your money can’t be used immediately after the transfer. Secondly, you may receive emails from IBKR discouraging you doing this. And thirdly, some readers emailed me that some of their money were refunded because the deposit was rejected.

Funding IBKR Using MYR

Thank to the collaboration between IBKR and Wise, Malaysians can finance IBKR directly through the Wise multi-currency account. Earlier, I talked about funding IBKR through the Wise multi-currency account HERE. However, some transfers using this method may be rejected.

Besides MYR, you can also fund your account with Brazilian Real (BRL), Bulgarian Lev (BGN), Indonesian Rupiah (IDR) and Romanian Leu (RON)

You can link your IBKR account to your Wise account so that the balance of your multi-currency account with Wise can be transferred to the IBKR account immediately.

Best of all, you can assess the money almost immediately as soon as it arrives at IBKR (faster processing of deposits).

I will show you step by step how to link your IBKR account to your Wise account and how to deposit to your IBKR account.

Step by Step

Step 1: Log in to your IBKR account and select transfer and pay

Step 2: Select Make a Deposit and click on Use a New Deposit Method

Just click on Make a deposit and you will see the following screen ,

Step 3: Link your IBKR with your Wise Account

Once you click on Use a new deposit method, the last option of the page will be as shown below ( Transfer from Wise Balance), click on Transfer

Step 4: Link Your Accounts

Once you have linked your accounts, you will see your Wise multi currency account balance as shown,

You can see that I have a balance of GBP 1823.41, MYR 531.82 and USD 0.63 in my Wise account, I find that it is cheaper for you to fund your MYR balance first and send the money. Let say I want to send MYR 500 to IBKR, I just click on my MYR balance,

Therefore if I click on continue today ( 17/3/2023) , IBKR will receive USD110.4 by Monday 20.

If you decide to fund your Wise multicurrency in USD first and send USD to IBKR, Wise will charge you USD 0.39.

A few days ago, I funded USD 2000 in my Wise multicurrency account, and tried to transfer the money to IBKR, you notice that at the end of the day, IBKR only receives USD 1999.61 ( after a fee of USD0.39)

One thing to take note, you can hold a total of up to equivalent of MYR 20K of all currencies in your Wise multicurrency account.

Conclusion

I am happy finally Malaysians can fund their IBKR account directly with MYR using the method above. As I mentioned in my previous post before , I found that Instarem is also a good option to transfer your money to IBKR. Currently Instarem is offering MYR 100 bonus for my blog readers to make their first two transfers. Kindly click HERE to open an Instarem account now.