IBLLC becoming only IBSJ in Japan

[hitsuji182]

Yeah, this really sucks. I'm thinking about transferring my positions to Firstrade. Anyone has an account with them?

[SLW]

Have not received any notification yet, but confused what they will do with retirement accounts as they are the custodian of my Rollover and Roth IRAs. I don’t think they can convert those to JPY.

[TokyoBoglehead]

The changes at IBKR followed regulatory changes by the FSA in 2022.

Won't these same brokers be affected? Are you sure non-Japan domiciled brokers can work with Japanese residents?

[gaijin86]

>>Won't these same brokers be affected? Are you sure non-Japan domiciled brokers can work with Japanese residents?

Yes that is a possibility. If I move my stuff to Firstrade or Swissquote, then in a year or 2 they also might stop serving Jp residents... But they are different from IB in not having a physical office in Japan, nor Japanese language phone support, nor Japanese website interface.

[FlamingWombat]

Therefore I dont think we can expect that IB will be allowed to offer much different from the usual Japanese brokers. There should be no problem if you dont mind your investments all converted to yen, and you only invest in things already available in Jp brokers.

Can you explain how this would work to a noob? I bought a few Vanguard ETFs from NYSE with USD through IB. During this changeover, IB would convert these to yen, meaning...? I hold the same positions/shares but now they are...?

[gaijin86]

I guess that the "positions" (ETFs and stocks etc) you hold in USD would be just the same in the new IBSJ (assuming the ETFs and stocks are generally available to Jp residents), still in USD. Not sure what would happen to dividends regarding currency.

I didnt yet read
FAQs: Account Migration from IB LLC to IBSJ
Here it is:
https://ibkr.info/node/4739

[northSaver]

Not sure what would happen to dividends regarding currency.

I read somewhere that they will be paid in yen. So converted from base currency to JPY at the market rate at the time.

I still haven't had an email but if they're sending them out in batches a week apart then I might get one on Monday. Regardless, I'm going to chat with IB support on Monday and see what's going on. I tried today but it is was unavailable (not surprisingly since it's a weekend).

I looked at my SBI account to see what international ETFs they offer, thinking that IBSJ will hopefully offer the same ones. Sadly only one of them (ICLN on NASDAQ) was available. Most of mine are LSE (London Stock Exchange) ETFs, and SBI doesn't offer any of these. I wonder if this is due to regulatory reasons? Or just not very popular in Japan? Are any LSE ETFs available on Rakuten or Monex I wonder? For example, VWRL, SGLN, VGOV, VDTA, etc. Thanks.

[sutebayashi]

Are any LSE ETFs available on Rakuten or Monex I wonder? For example, VWRL, SGLN, VGOV, VDTA, etc. Thanks.

Monex doesn’t carry UK listed ETFs (they have US and China listed only), but if the underlying indexes of your UK ETFs are the same then you could buy the US listed equivalent.

You can see what they have here:
https://info.monex.co.jp/foreign-stock/etf/index.html

[northSaver]

Thanks sutebayashi. I've since read that no brokers in Japan offer European ETFs, so maybe it's a regulatory thing. I'm not confident I'll be able to keep them. Yes, I could just switch to the US versions, if available. Or Japanese mutual funds. I was hoping to keep my portfolio in USD, GBP and JPY going forward. That doesn't seem likely anymore

[rasselbiluga]

I also got the email earlier this week... I am holding European ETFs (LSE). Wondering when we will know whether specific positions can be transferred or have to be closed? April is soon