Not upheld: Service failure - technical restrictions on order entry and closure complaint against Interactive Brokers (U.K.) Limited (IBUK)

Decision detail

Summary

Mr H complained that he was unable to close CFD positions within his SIPP account with IBUK after the firm withdrew its CFD offering in June 2024 and restricted his account to closing positions only. He reported receiving error messages when attempting to modify existing limit orders or close positions. IBUK explained that its system could not differentiate between order modifications and new trades, causing them to be blocked by the close-only restriction, but that Mr H could successfully close positions using the designated 'close' button. The ombudsman found the system restriction reasonable, the inconvenience marginal, and concluded that without evidence of quantifiable loss or that market movements would have been more favourable at an earlier closure time, the complaint could not be upheld, though better communication from IBUK would have been appropriate.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman concluded that while Mr H experienced technical inconveniences when attempting to modify orders or close positions using non-standard methods, IBUK's system restriction was not unreasonable. The requirement to use the 'close' button or cancel and reopen orders was only marginally more awkward and did not materially impact Mr H's ability to gradually reduce his exposure. Critically, absent contemporaneous evidence of what Mr H would have done, the ombudsman could not reasonably conclude he suffered a quantifiable loss, as market movements could have moved either in his favour or against him between attempted and actual closure times. Better communication from IBUK would have been appropriate, but this did not constitute a loss-causing failure.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website