IBKR vs FCNCA Comparison

Interactive Brokers is a large, automated, retail and institutional brokerage that boasted nearly $570 billion in customer equity at the end of 2024. The company cut its teeth as a market maker, introducing US financial markets to automated and algorithmic training before expanding into brokerage services in 1993. The firm has a wide-ranging client base, with its best-in-class order execution and extremely low margin lending rates catering to a sophisticated audience of hedge funds, proprietary traders, and introducing brokers that account for about 45% of the firm's commissions. With operations spanning more than 160 electronic exchanges, 36 countries, and 28 currencies, Interactive Brokers caters to a global clientele, with more than 80% of active accounts sitting outside the US.

First Citizens is a US regional bank with total assets of over $230 billion as of Sept. 30, 2025. Headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, First Citizens' largest markets are North Carolina, South Carolina, and California. The bank has a track record of making troubled bank acquisitions from the FDIC, like the 2023 acquisition of Silicon Valley Bridge Bank, which doubled its asset base. First Citizens offers products and services across retail, commercial, wealth management, and railcar leasing. First Citizens derived over 95% of its earnings from banking and less than 5% from railcar leasing in 2024.