William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Okay. So joining us today, we're pleased to have Thomas Peterffy, Chairman of Interactive Brokers. Thomas founded Interactive Brokers in 1977, and it was one of the pioneers of the financial services industry, especially in its automation.
今天我们非常高兴邀请到 Interactive Brokers 的董事长 Thomas Peterffy 先生。Thomas 于1977年创立了 Interactive Brokers，是金融服务行业的先驱者之一，特别是在自动化领域。
Thomas, thanks for joining us again for the conference for the fifth straight year, even in virtual form this year. Before we begin with today's presentation, which will be fireside chat, I wanted to remind the audience that they can send their questions via the webcast. And time permitting, we will take some of the audience questions at the end.
Thomas，感谢你连续第五年参加我们的会议，尽管今年是以线上形式出席。在我们开始今天的炉边对谈前，我想提醒观众，你们可以通过网络直播发送问题。如果时间允许，我们将在最后选取一些问题进行提问。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
But Thomas, maybe we can just start off high level on Interactive Brokers' unique position in the industry. So you have the most global reach of all the publicly traded brokerages, the most active client base, the highest return on client assets. And you've massively expanded the customer base this year by, I think, 52% account growth year-over-year as of November.
那么 Thomas，我们先从宏观层面开始谈谈 Interactive Brokers 在行业中的独特地位。你们在所有上市券商中拥有最广泛的全球覆盖、最活跃的客户群体、客户资产回报率最高。而且截至11月，今年客户账户数量同比增长了52%，扩张速度惊人。
So can you talk about what positioned the company to take advantage of the market environment and the opportunity this year and how you're looking forward to serving this much larger account base over the next 3 to 5 years?
你能否谈谈是什么让公司能够抓住今年的市场环境和机会？以及你们如何计划在未来3到5年中服务这个大幅增长的客户基础？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
Well, as you know, Interactive Brokers grew out of our fully automated option market \[indiscernible] in the early '90s. Timber Hill launched Interactive Brokers with the mission of serving the roughly 6,000 individual floor traders in the -- on the various exchange floors. They needed electronic tools to be able to continue their business as the exchanges were going electronic.
如你所知，Interactive Brokers 起源于我们90年代初建立的全自动化期权市场做市业务。Timber Hill 创建 Interactive Brokers 的初衷是为了服务当时在各个交易所场内的约6000名个人交易员。随着交易所逐步电子化，他们需要电子工具来继续开展业务。
According to -- accordingly, the platform we build had to be suitable for professional traders and the execution quality, commission, margin and borrow and sub-borrow rates have to be low enough for them to be able to continue to produce regular daily income. That is still our focus today. But once we build the platform, we saw nothing wrong with making it available to our commerce.
因此，我们开发的平台必须适用于专业交易员，无论是成交质量、佣金、保证金要求，还是借券/借出费率，都必须足够低，才能让他们持续获得日常收益。这一点至今仍是我们的核心。但既然我们已经搭建好这个平台，我们认为也完全可以向更广泛的市场用户开放使用。
Over the years, many floor trader customers, they are gradually replaced by proprietary trading with hedge funds and their employees. But we still maintain the attitude that anything we build should be available for anyone to use if they bother to learn it, and many people enthusiastically do so. Automation, low pricing and tools that enable professionals to invest and trade profitably still remains our primary focus today.
多年来，许多场内交易员逐渐被对冲基金及其员工的自营交易所取代。但我们始终坚持这样的理念：只要用户愿意学习，我们开发的任何工具都应该对所有人开放，事实证明很多人也非常热衷于此。至今，自动化、低成本，以及帮助专业人士实现盈利的工具，仍然是我们最核心的业务重点。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got it. So I think investors devote a lot of attention and time focusing on your competitive position in the U.S. And I think time and time again, you've emphasized the strong international growth in recent years. What do you hear from customers abroad about why they choose IBKR? And how do you differentiate your comp -- yourself from the competition in international markets?
明白了。我想大多数投资者都非常关注你们在美国市场的竞争地位。而你过去也多次强调 IBKR 近年来在国际市场的强劲增长。你从海外客户那里听到的反馈是什么？他们为什么选择 IBKR？在国际市场上你们是如何区别于竞争对手的？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
It's true. We aim to be a global broker. You can come to us from practically any country with any of most currencies and buy any publicly traded product anywhere in the world practically. The brokerage business is not as well-developed in most other places outside of the U.S. as it is here. And we have less competition, especially for financially sophisticated investors and traders. Although for these folks, the financially sophisticated traders, our investors have no -- sorry, our platform has no competition within the United States either.
确实如此。我们的目标是成为一家全球性的券商。无论你来自哪个国家、使用哪种主流货币，都可以通过我们平台交易几乎全球任意市场的上市产品。除了美国之外，很多地区的券商业务并不成熟，因此我们的竞争对手也较少，尤其是在服务那些具备财务专业能力的投资者和交易员方面。事实上，即使是在美国，对这类专业人士而言，我们的平台也几乎没有竞争对手。
Outside the U.S., people are more open and eager to learn about stocks, options, futures without preconceived ideas of what a brokerage platform should look like. We find that many people in the U.S. are a lot into a mindset of using their obsolete and less capable platform due to sheer inertia and reluctance to learn new things. This is much less of a problem for us outside of the country. People are more willing to learn our way of looking at markets, our way of looking at trading and investing. We don't just give them an online order ticket to fill out, we give them live markets to interact with using our very large tools.
在美国之外的地区，人们更开放，也更渴望学习股票、期权、期货等相关知识，他们对券商平台“应该长什么样”没有固有观念。我们发现，在美国，很多用户出于惯性仍然使用老旧、功能有限的平台，不愿意花时间去学习新的工具。但在海外，这种情况少得多。用户更愿意学习我们看待市场、看待交易与投资的方式。我们提供的不仅仅是一个在线订单表格，而是一个可以直接与实时市场互动的大型工具平台。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got it. And just one more on the international growth. I mean with so much of the growth coming from international, can you just help us understand which geographies do you expect to drive the most growth outside of the U.S. from here? And where you see the biggest opportunities to expand the reach?
明白了。我再问一个关于国际增长的问题。既然你们的增长很大一部分来自海外市场，你能否谈谈从现在开始，你们预计哪些地区会带来最大的增长？你们又在哪里看到拓展业务覆盖的最大机会？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
Sure. Well, our growth over the last 12 months has been about 60 -- 36% in America. It's been about 61% in Europe and 63% in Asia, especially rapid growth is coming from Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and Canada and South America.
当然。过去12个月，我们在美国的增长约为36%，而在欧洲约为61%，亚洲约为63%。其中增长最快的地区包括香港、新加坡和马来西亚，以及东欧、中东、加拿大和南美洲。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got you. And then just more broadly on the different customer segments. I think for several years, the introducing broker segment was what drove a lot of the growth in accounts, but this year the story has really been about the individual client base and just the rapid influx of new investors into the market during lockdowns and stay-at-home orders.
明白了。我们换个角度聊一下不同的客户群体。过去几年，介绍经纪人（Introducing Broker）渠道一直是账户增长的主要驱动力。但今年的亮点显然是散户群体，特别是在疫情封锁和居家令期间，大量新投资者迅速进入市场。
So as the world waits the vaccine and various forms of lockdowns are kind of ongoing throughout the world, do you think this sort of growth can persist in the very near term? And then as the world and the environment normalizes, what do you think the growth profile of the company looks like longer term?
那么在全球等待疫苗、部分地区仍处于封锁状态的背景下，你认为这种增长在短期内还能持续吗？而一旦世界逐步回归常态，从长期来看，公司将呈现怎样的增长轮廓？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
Yes, so -- yes, individual customers' accounts have grown by 72%, which is especially high over the last 12 months. Much of this is due to many of our tools that are very accessible to individual investors to do their own research and also better advertising that we targeted to this segment. This is my favorite customer segment because 32% of our new customers come to us by recommendation of existing customers. The more of them we get, the more new ones will come.
是的，过去12个月我们散户客户账户增长了72%，这个增幅非常惊人。这在很大程度上得益于我们提供了很多方便个人投资者进行自主研究的工具，同时我们也在这个群体中做了更精准的广告投放。我个人非常喜欢这一客户群体，因为我们有32%的新客户是通过老客户推荐来的，客户越多，口碑传播带来的新客户也就越多。
While the COVID lockdown certainly enticed some customers to open accounts and try their hands at trading, I think that the rapid growth of the individual customer is also due to a more fundamental global trend in the growth of capitalism, private ownership and widely spread appreciation and acceptance of capital markets around the world. I believe this to be a long-term trend, and this growth will continue in the foreseeable future.
虽然疫情封锁确实促使一部分人开户并尝试交易，但我认为散户快速增长背后更根本的驱动是全球范围内资本主义的发展、私有产权的强化，以及资本市场在全球的普遍认知和接受。这是一个长期趋势，我相信这种增长在可预见的未来仍将持续。
So while going forward it's unlikely that we will keep -- be able to keep up the 52% growth rate or especially the 72% for individual customers, I think it may -- after the vaccine, it may level off around in the high 20s or around 30% maybe.
因此，尽管我们未来可能无法维持52%的整体增长率，更不用说72%的散户增长率了，但在疫苗普及之后，我认为增长率可能会稳定在高20%甚至接近30%的水平。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got it. That makes sense. So maybe digging in a little bit more into what we've seen year to date, it hasn't -- the environment hasn't really just manifested itself in elevated account growth numbers, you've also seen it in the volumes. Activity rates have been 50% to 75% elevated per account.
明白了，这听起来很合理。我们再深入一点来看今年迄今的情况，目前的市场环境不仅体现在账户增长的加速上，你们的交易量也显著上升。单个账户的活跃度提升了50%到75%。
And -- that being said, a lot of the volume has been smaller notional sizes, maybe a little bit less derivatives than you'd run previously. So what is the makeup of the higher volumes and the incoming accounts? How are you about the types of new customers that are attracting -- that you're attracting right now? And kind of how do you assess the quality of these accounts versus, kind of, the legacy customers that you have?
不过，这些交易量中很多都是较小的名义金额，衍生品交易的比例可能也比过去低。那么这些新增交易量和新账户的构成情况如何？你们现在吸引到的新客户大多是什么类型？相比你们过去的老客户，你们是如何评估这些新账户的“质量”的？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
So I look at it this way. Last 12 months to November, account growth -- overall account growth 52%, client acquisition 61%, commission income 50%. But since about 20% of the client equity growth is due to the appreciation in market prices, we can conclude that new accounts have somewhat less money and tend to trade smaller order sizes than older ones, and that is okay with us.
我的看法是这样的：截至11月，过去12个月我们的账户总数增长了52%，客户新增增长了61%，佣金收入增长了50%。其中大约有20%的客户资产增长是由于市场价格上涨带来的，因此可以推断，新账户的平均资金量比老账户略低，交易单笔金额也偏小——但我们对此完全可以接受。
We like the idea of many young people, who do not necessarily have the amounts of money their parents may have, come to us to learn about investing and trading. Eventually, many of these accounts will become much larger.
我们很欢迎年轻人来使用我们的平台，尽管他们手上可能没有像父母那一代那么多的资金，但他们愿意在这里学习投资与交易。随着时间推移，其中很多账户最终会成长为大账户。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got it. That's a good segue into the next question on just like younger accounts and smaller account sizes. I think people understand that Interactive Brokers is a platform for sophisticated traders, and you aren't always attracting the same sort of client that maybe like Schwab or Fidelity attracts.
明白了。这也自然引出了我们下一个问题：关于年轻客户和小额账户。我想大家普遍认知是，Interactive Brokers 是一个为专业交易者打造的平台，你们吸引的客户群体与 Schwab 或 Fidelity 等公司不完全相同。
More recently, however, there's been a lot of focus on the competition for active traders and the success of fintech platforms at attracting large amounts of new investors that are very highly active. So how do you compete or do you compete with these fintech platforms? And is there anything to be learned from the rapid growth that you've seen among younger investors?
但最近行业内非常关注一个话题：如何争夺活跃交易者用户，特别是一些金融科技平台在吸引大量非常活跃的新投资者方面取得了巨大成功。你们是否有意与这些平台竞争？面对年轻投资者的快速增长，你们有没有从中获得什么启发？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
So I need to take this question in 2 parts. Schwab and Fidelity, they have many of our target customers. They are both well stablished, very credible and well-run firms. We compete with them by providing better execution, lower margin rates and easier accessible shortable inventory. It is those few percent of the Schwab and Fidelity customers who care about these kinds of things. That is our target customer. And we got some of them every now and then. It's not easy because people suffer from this disease or inertia. But every now and then we succeed with a few.
我得把这个问题分两部分来回答。Schwab 和 Fidelity 拥有很多我们理想中的目标客户。他们都是资深、可信赖且管理良好的公司。我们与他们竞争的方式是：提供更优的成交质量、更低的保证金利率，以及更容易借到的可卖空库存。关注这些方面的 Schwab 和 Fidelity 客户只占一小部分，而这正是我们所瞄准的客户群体。我们确实会时不时地吸引其中一些客户转投我们平台。这并不容易，因为人们常常有“惯性病”，不愿意改变。但我们时不时还是会成功吸引一部分人。
Robinhood, on the other hand, we do not compete. They are a platform for young novice investors, and we prefer that these people cut their teeth on other platforms. Some of these folks become good traders and investors. And at some point, they realize that they need to upgrade to a more sophisticated platform and then they come to us. We indeed get, on the average, about 8 accounts a day from Robinhood, but I do not recall ever having seen one going in the opposite direction.
至于 Robinhood，我们并不与他们竞争。他们的平台是面向年轻和初学者的，我们更希望这些人先在别的平台积累经验。一部分人最终会成为优秀的交易员或投资者，然后他们意识到自己需要一个更专业的平台，于是就会选择我们。事实上，我们每天大约能从 Robinhood 获得8个转入账户，但我不记得我们这边有客户流向 Robinhood 的情况。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Understood. So -- I know the rollout of IBKR Lite has had some unintended consequences over the past year as all the competitors rushed to move to 0. And I think after a year, after rollout, the adoption has still been just 1% of the account base, which I think validates the focus that you've always had on execution quality, but do you have any color on what you've learned from running the 2 models side-by-side in terms of the quality or the value of the order routing at IBKR Pro?
明白了。我知道在过去一年推出 IBKR Lite 后，由于同行纷纷转向零佣金，也带来了一些意料之外的结果。到目前为止，Lite 用户仍然只占账户总量的约1%，这其实印证了你们始终坚持的高质量成交理念。但你们同时运行 Lite 和 Pro 两种模式，在订单路由的质量或价值方面有没有什么经验总结可以分享？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
So the numbers are slightly larger than that. Today, 4.8% of our customers are Lite accounts. And in the last quarter, they accounted for 2.7% of our trades. So clearly, it indicates that customers who trade more often want to have a professional quality execution and are happy to pay a small commission. On the other hand, less frequently trading customers like Lite, which is exactly what we expected and we're happy with this outcome.
实际上这个比例稍高一些。目前约有4.8%的客户使用的是 Lite 账户，而在上个季度，这些账户的交易量占比为2.7%。这清楚表明，高频交易的客户更倾向于选择专业级的执行质量，也愿意为此支付一小笔佣金。而交易频率较低的客户更喜欢 Lite，这正是我们预期的结果，我们对此非常满意。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got it. So maybe keeping with this idea of highly active versus less active clients, much of the online brokerage industry relies on generating net interest income from client cash balances in order to generate revenues because the commissions are low and their accounts trade so infrequently that -- and they use less margin that trading revenues just don't fully pay the bills. And you've managed to create this cash machine that still derives the majority of the revenues from active traders and enjoys a little bit strong profitability.
明白了。我们继续这个关于高活跃度客户与低活跃度客户的讨论。当前大多数线上券商依赖客户现金余额带来的净利息收入作为主要收入来源，因为他们的佣金很低，而且客户交易频率很低、杠杆使用也少，仅靠交易收入无法覆盖成本。而你们却打造出一个可以从活跃交易客户身上获得大部分收入并保持强劲盈利能力的“现金机器”。
So my question here is, will IBKR ever be the right platform for buy-and-hold oriented investors to invest? And do you need to broaden the funnel in order to get to that 80 million accounts over the next 20 years that you spoke on, on the most recent earnings call?
所以我的问题是：IBKR 是否有可能成为适合“买入并持有型”投资者的理想平台？你们是否需要扩大用户获取渠道，才能实现你在最近财报电话会中提到的“未来20年达到8000万个账户”的目标？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
Yes, definitely. So it is true that buy-and-hold customers are less concerned about execution quality. If they do not use leverage, they do not care about margin. But since Schwab, Fidelity and E*TRADE have done away with stock commissions and option commissions are not enough to make up for the lost revenue, they are now focusing on various fees, and more significant one of these is a custody fee.
是的，毫无疑问。确实，买入并持有型客户通常不太关心成交质量。如果他们不使用杠杆，对保证金利率也无所谓。但现在，Schwab、Fidelity 和 E*TRADE 已经取消了股票交易佣金，期权佣金也不足以弥补收入缺口，所以它们开始转而靠其他收费方式，最明显的一项就是“托管费”。
Interactive Brokers does not charge a custody fee. So 10% or 30% -- or 10 or 30 basis points of custody fee may not be noticeable in a year when markets are up 10% to 20%. But in slower years, customers will refocus on broker costs, and at that time, the buy-and-hold customer will become more attracted to Interactive Brokers free custody offering.
Interactive Brokers 并不收取托管费。10到30个基点的托管费用，在市场上涨10%到20%的年份里可能不太明显。但在行情平淡的年份，客户会重新关注券商的成本结构。到那时，IBKR 提供的“免费托管”优势就会更具吸引力，尤其是对买入并持有型客户。
Our recent purchase of 70,000 portfolio -- Folio customers is going to give us -- from your firm -- is going to give us the opportunity to understand how to work with the buy-and-hold customer and how we can make an acceptable return on housing them without a custody. We also expect that some of these folks, once they get familiar with our platform and all the research and trading tools that are available for free, may become more active customers.
我们最近从你们公司（Goldman Sachs）收购了70,000个 Folio 客户，这给了我们一个机会去深入了解如何服务这类买入并持有的客户，以及在不收取托管费的前提下，如何从中获得可接受的回报。我们也预计，其中一些客户在熟悉我们平台之后，会开始使用我们提供的免费研究工具和交易工具，可能会逐渐成为更活跃的用户。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got it. Maybe switching gears a bit. Trading in single name option has been a big part of the increase in retail volumes over the past year. Just a high-level question about the industry more broadly. Do you think the industry is striking the right balance between making it easy to trade derivatives versus making sure that investors have the right amount of education and sophistication required to trade these instruments?
明白了。换个话题。过去一年中，个股期权交易在散户交易量增长中占了相当大的比重。我想从更宏观的角度问一个问题：你认为整个行业在“让投资者更容易交易衍生品”与“确保他们具备足够知识与专业能力”这两者之间，是否找到了正确的平衡点？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
So I -- to be honest, I never look at other platforms. So I don't really know what other brokers do. We require our customers to either have previous options trading experience or they have to take an online study course and pass a test.
说实话，我从不关注其他券商的平台。所以我并不清楚他们是怎么做的。我们自己的要求是：客户必须要么具备期权交易的相关经验，要么就必须参加我们的在线学习课程并通过测试。
Having started in business as an options trader, this is a very important issue for me. And we have spent years to create option-oriented analytical tools to help our option trading customers. We have fantastic tools like Probability Lab is one of my favorite tool that really everybody should understand to -- everybody should experience if they want to understand my way of looking at options.
我自己是从事期权交易出身的，所以这个问题对我而言非常重要。我们花了多年时间开发了许多专门面向期权交易者的分析工具。我们有一些非常出色的工具，比如 Probability Lab（概率实验室）就是我最喜欢的工具之一。如果你想理解我看待期权的方式，那它是每个人都应该体验的工具。
So options are all about probability of future events. They are wonderful tool for people who like to analyze things. But otherwise, they are risky. So if you're unwilling to really learn about it, I don't think you should get into it.
期权交易的核心是对未来事件概率的判断。它是一个非常棒的工具，适合喜欢分析的人。但如果不是这种性格，期权就是很有风险的。所以如果你不愿意真正去了解它，我不建议你涉足这个领域。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Makes sense. Maybe switching gears to the regulatory environment. Four years ago, you sat on stage in person, not over Zoom, and shared some views on what the incoming administration might mean for the industry, for the economy. Four years later, you've got a different administration coming in. Do you expect there to be any major changes in the regulatory environment that's relevant for your business?
说得通。那我们来聊聊监管环境。四年前，你是亲自到现场而不是通过 Zoom，谈过即将上任的政府对行业和经济可能带来的影响。现在四年过去，又是一个新政府上台。你是否预期会在与你们业务相关的监管环境上看到什么重大变化？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
I do. I think that regulations will increase and get tighter. Regulators will build up more examination and enforcement staff and compliance costs will increase even further.
是的，我认为监管会进一步加强。监管机构会增设更多审查和执法人员，合规成本也会随之进一步上升。
On the brighter side, competition will diminish because it will be even more difficult for smaller newcomers to basically build out all that what the regulators expect them to build out. So if you were -- there would be a larger \[indiscernible] larger online brokers.
从积极的一面看，竞争会减少。因为对于那些规模较小的新入行公司来说，要满足监管机构所要求的全部合规建设将变得更加困难。所以这将进一步有利于规模更大的线上券商。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got it. Just a reminder for the audience to submit questions via the webcast, if you have them, and we will -- we'll see if we can get to some of them towards the end here.
明白了。也提醒一下各位观众，如果有问题请通过网络直播提交，我们会看看是否有时间在最后选取一些问题来回答。
But, Thomas, maybe sticking with kind of more regulatory developments or jurisdictional developments. I wanted to see if we could get an update on the Brexit issue that you discussed on the earnings call. I think you mentioned you'd applied for several licenses in Europe in order to continue to remain operational for new customers.
Thomas，我们继续聊监管方面的问题。这次我想了解一下你在财报电话会上提到的 Brexit（脱欧）相关事项的最新进展。我记得你当时说你们为了在欧洲继续服务新客户，已经申请了多个牌照。
Do you expect this to be -- do you still expect this to be an issue post year end? And are you anticipating any material impacts as you kind of work to dissolve the licensing issue?
你是否预计这一问题在年末之后仍会是一个难题？你们在解决牌照问题的过程中是否预期会有实质性影响？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
So in preparation for the Brexit, we secured the brokerage license in Luxembourg because we used to serve our European customers from Interactive Brokers U.K. and after Brexit that will no longer be allowed. So we got this license in Luxembourg only to find out that the regulators would not allow us to accommodate all of our 200,000 customers in the EU because the EU's SIPC coverage guarantees each account for up to \$20,000 and Luxembourg could not undertake a potential \$40 billion obligation. So they told us that we can only house 10,000 of our 200,000 customers.
为了应对 Brexit，我们在卢森堡取得了券商牌照。因为我们过去是通过 Interactive Brokers UK 来服务欧洲客户的，但在脱欧之后这种安排将不再被允许。然而我们拿到卢森堡牌照后却发现，监管机构不允许我们将所有20万名欧盟客户都迁入卢森堡账户，因为欧盟的投资者保护机制规定每个账户享有最多2万美元的保障，而卢森堡无法承担高达400亿美元的潜在责任。所以监管机构告诉我们最多只能迁入其中1万名客户。
So upon receiving this terrible news, we immediately applied for licenses in Ireland and Hungary. Each of these license applications are currently pending. And we are very, very optimistic that we will get at least one of them, certainly before the end of the month.
收到这个令人头疼的消息后，我们立即又申请了爱尔兰和匈牙利的经营牌照。这两个申请目前都在审批中。但我们非常非常有信心，在月底之前至少会拿下其中一个。
In the future, our EU customer base will be segmented into Western Europe and Central Europe or Eastern Europe. So we'll have Interactive Brokers Ireland, we'll have Luxembourg and we'll have Interactive Brokers Central Europe.
未来我们在欧盟的客户群会被划分为西欧和中东欧两个部分。我们将分别设立 Interactive Brokers Ireland（爱尔兰）、Luxembourg（卢森堡）和 Interactive Brokers Central Europe（中欧）三家公司来对应服务这些地区的客户。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got it. That makes sense. So similar topic, different continent, different license, but you had applied for a U.S. bank charter about a year ago. And I think you recently mentioned the time line had been pushed out a couple of quarters. But can you maybe talk about timing and maybe hit on some of the -- what do you think the primary benefits of a bank charter for Interactive would be?
明白了，很合理。还是类似话题，不过换了个洲、换了个牌照。你们大约在一年前申请了美国的银行牌照。我记得你最近提到该项目的时间线被推迟了几个季度。你能否谈谈当前的进展时点，以及取得银行牌照对 Interactive Brokers 最大的好处是什么？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
So the opportunities that -- wait, no, no. So -- the primary benefit would be for our customers to have a seamless experience in funding and withdrawing money through our own bank, right? Owning a bank would give us all the freedom we would need to build the software that we would make a banking and brokerage platform fully integrated and adding other banking services in the future. However, due to the original Brexit-related tasks, this project has moved to the \[indiscernible].
嗯，我们申请银行牌照的最大好处，就是能为客户提供更加无缝的资金存取体验。如果拥有一家自己的银行，我们就能完全自主开发系统，实现银行服务与券商平台的深度整合，未来也可以添加更多银行类服务。不过，由于之前 Brexit 相关事务优先级较高，这一项目的进度被推后了。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got it. Okay. Let's see, I think recently, you made a few comments that you expect to see some opportunities on the investment advisor platform to win new business from fallout from the merger between Ameritrade and Schwab. Are there any initiatives that you have internally to target that business or make investments in the platform to attract those potential customers?
明白了。再问一个问题。我记得你最近提到，Ameritrade 与 Schwab 合并后可能会带来一些机会，让你们在投资顾问平台（RIA）领域赢得新业务。你们内部是否已经有专门的举措或平台投入，用于吸引这些潜在客户？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
The opportunities that many financial advisors had accounts with each Schwab and Ameritrade in order to -- for one account to serve as a backup for the other. We now see a number of such RIAs coming to us and kicking the tires, looking to establish another backup.
确实有机会。许多理财顾问（RIAs）原本在 Schwab 和 Ameritrade 各开一个账户，以此作为彼此的备用方案。而现在，我们看到不少这类顾问开始来我们这里“试车”，希望再建立一个备用渠道。
When they come, they are pleasantly surprised by our newly extended portfolio builder where they can filter stocks by a huge number of criteria, combine them in a portfolio and back test the portfolio, not only for returns but also the variability of these returns and other performance statistics.
当他们接触到我们平台时，通常会对我们的新版投资组合构建工具感到惊喜。这个工具可以基于大量筛选条件选股，把它们组合成一个投资组合，并进行回测，不只是回测收益率，还可以评估波动性等其他关键绩效指标。
From here, they can move these portfolios into an updated portfolio allocation and rebalancing tools, namely, they can put several of our model portfolios that they constructed in the portfolio builder together and combine them according to different ways -- weights and continue back testing them.
然后他们可以把这些组合导入我们的新版资产配置与再平衡工具。也就是说，他们可以把多个模型组合合并，根据不同的权重配置组合，并继续进行回测分析。
The other thing, they -- these RIAs would be extremely attractive to is the flexible report that they can, in fact, design on our platform to look in any way they like because they love their own. The reports they used to receive, that they want to continue to receive, so we enable them to build that very simply.
还有一个让 RIAs 非常喜欢的功能是我们平台上高度灵活的报表设计。他们可以按照自己想要的格式定制报表，因为很多人习惯了自己原来的报表样式，并希望继续保留这种风格。我们让他们可以非常轻松地做到这一点。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got it. You talked a little bit before about the difficulty in competing in terms of investment spending versus the large U.S. players with very large technology budgets, particularly after some of the consolidation in the industry that we've seen. Can you talk about the ways that you would approach investment spending to get the most bang for your buck?
明白了。你之前提到过，相较于一些大型美国券商，他们在科技投入上有着庞大的预算，特别是在行业整合之后，竞争更加激烈。你能否谈谈，Interactive Brokers 是如何看待投资支出，并最大化其投入产出比的？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
So it isn't so much about the bang for the buck for us. Technology budget has never been an issue for us. We would be willing to spend a great deal more if we could do that productively. We always have a large number of projects that we would like to do and a limited amount of resources to do that. But the resources are not limited by money, but they are -- but by rather a sufficient number of talented people who are good at building applications and are familiar with the business so that what they build makes practical sense.
对我们来说，这并不是“性价比最大化”的问题。技术预算从来不是我们的瓶颈。如果能高效执行，我们愿意花更多钱。我们一直有大量想做的项目，但资源有限。这里的限制不是资金，而是缺乏足够多既懂开发又了解业务的优秀人才，只有这样的人才能开发出真正有实用价值的系统。
Our CEO, Milan Galik, is a software engineer and has been with us for 3 decades, during which he learned our business and our culture and our relentless focus on automation. Over the years, he has become a much better manager than I was. And I have no doubt that he will be able to continue to hire and train more talented people to build more applications even faster than we did in the past so that we can continue to fulfill long-term goals and, at the same time, be reactive enough to suddenly changing circumstance in the industry.
我们的 CEO Milan Galik 是一位软件工程师，已经在公司工作了30年。在这期间他深入理解了我们的业务、文化，以及我们对自动化的执着追求。多年来，他已经成为比我更优秀的管理者。我毫不怀疑，他有能力继续招募并培养更多人才，开发更多系统，甚至比我们过去还要高效，从而既能实现长期目标，也能及时应对行业环境的突发变化。
From our point of view, this is a competition on technology and development, and developers are our most important assets. We must build things and capabilities to our platform that our competitors do not have, which can be well-described by very few words in an ad or by our salespeople because we only get very short attention time and only \[ infrequently ].
在我们看来，这是一场技术和开发能力的竞争。开发者是我们最重要的资产。我们必须在平台上构建竞争对手没有的功能，这些功能要能用极简的语言在广告或销售介绍中表达清楚，因为我们与潜在客户接触的时间非常短，也并不频繁。
We think that we do this quite well. We come from behind in the United States, but very few customers who decide to take a chance on us ever seem to regret it. And we keep on growing faster and faster. Milan is extremely good at directing all these large multitude of projects to fruition so that we will find new capabilities on our platform \[indiscernible].
我们认为自己在这方面做得非常好。虽然我们在美国市场起步较晚，但几乎没有客户在尝试了我们的平台之后感到后悔。我们的增长速度也越来越快。Milan 非常擅长协调大量项目的推进，让这些项目不断落地，使我们的平台持续获得新的能力与优势。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got it. Maybe sticking with that theme of new capabilities, the last 2 years have been very active in rolling out new products, markets, features onto the platform. I think more recently, you rolled out the Impact Dashboard, which is focused on ESG investing. You've also expanded the mutual fund marketplace. As you look out into next year, how does the pipeline of customer-facing products compare to the past few years? I know you won't tell us what they are.
明白了。延续我们关于“新功能”的话题，过去两年你们在推出新产品、新市场、新功能方面非常活跃。最近你们推出了以 ESG 投资为核心的 Impact Dashboard，还扩展了共同基金的产品市场。展望明年，你们面向客户的新产品管线与过去几年相比如何？我知道你不会透露具体内容。
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
So the Impact Dashboard is a new and unique tool in the industry. It is a brain child of my son, William. He's 31. And along with many people his age, he is more focused on ESG and related issues.
Impact Dashboard 是整个行业中一个全新的独特工具，它是我儿子 William 的创意。他今年31岁，和许多同龄人一样，他非常关注 ESG 及相关议题。
We think that this tool and its evolution into future versions will be extremely attractive, especially for financially sophisticated younger people who will continue to come to us in greater numbers. 43 is the average age of our customers at this time. We would like to keep near that number, and the ESG impact app will help us do that.
我们认为这个工具及其未来的版本会极具吸引力，尤其是对那些既年轻又具备金融素养的客户群体，这部分人将持续增加。目前我们客户的平均年龄是43岁，我们希望能够维持在这个水平，而 ESG Impact 应用将帮助我们实现这个目标。
Please stay tuned on this tool. You'll see other tools coming soon and lots of young customers to follow. The last 2 years were bountiful with digital tools, the next 2 years will be even more so.
请持续关注这个工具。你将会看到更多新工具即将上线，并吸引更多年轻客户。过去两年我们在数字化工具方面成果丰硕，接下来两年还会更强劲。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Understood. Looking forward to that. The long-term guidance on the expense base has been 10% to 15%. It's been in place for a really long time now. Expense growth is at the high end of the range in 2020, but that's obviously in the backdrop of a 50% increase in accounts. And I think on your call, you also indicated that some of that was certainly compliance-related issues and investing in strengthening your controls. And maybe there are even some more onetime and major costs in the run rate this year.
明白了，值得期待。你们长期对费用增长的指引一直维持在10%到15%之间，这个指引已经持续很久了。2020年的费用增长达到了区间的高端，但这也发生在账户数量增长50%的背景下。我记得你在财报电话会上也提到，其中部分成本确实与合规相关，是为了加强控制而进行的投资。今年费用中也可能存在一些一次性和较大金额的项目。
It sounded like the bulk of the work on the compliance front was nearly complete at the end of the third quarter. Can you maybe help investors understand what the increased costs have been? What's kind of more onetime in nature? And as you look out, how do you think about cost increases in this elevated account growth environment?
听起来你们在合规方面的大部分工作在第三季度末就已接近完成。你是否可以向投资者解释一下，这些成本增加主要体现在哪些方面？哪些是一次性的支出？展望未来，在账户持续高增长的情况下，你们如何看待成本上升的问题？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
So expenses will continue to grow with increased compliance. As I said, we keep looking for and hiring more developers. We have no limits here. We will hire as many good people as we can get.
因此，随着合规要求的增加，我们的支出也会持续增长。正如我之前提到的，我们一直在寻找和招聘更多开发人员。在这方面我们没有限制——我们会尽可能多地雇佣优秀的人才。
Expanding around the world with more and more offices and more and more customer service will add to expenses. So we'll continuously increase in marketing and sales expenses. Unfortunately, our legal fees keep also rise.
随着我们在全球扩张、设立更多办公室、提供更多客户服务，成本也在随之上升。与此同时，我们在市场推广和销售方面的开支也会不断增加。不幸的是，我们的法律费用也在不断上升。
So to sum it up, we hope that we will be able to exceed that 15% because we want to grow as fast as we can. So we hope that we'll exceed the 15% rate expense growth, but with controlled growth. The emphasis is on the word "controlled."
总的来说，我们希望能够突破15%的费用增长上限，因为我们希望尽可能快地发展。当然，我们希望在突破15%的增长时，能够做到“可控增长”——重点在于“可控”。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Understood. And I understand you have a hard stop at 11:55. I'm going to squeeze one more question in here. Thomas, the business generates a significant amount of capital over time. The dividend only absorbs a small amount of those earnings. Can you tell us about significant capital base that you have and what you intend to do with it over time?
明白了。我知道你11:55必须离开，但我想再挤进一个问题。Thomas，IBKR 长期以来积累了大量资本，而公司每年分红只占用其中一小部分。你能谈谈你们目前的大规模资本基础，以及未来打算如何使用这些资本吗？
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
So we hope to break the \$10 billion mark in equity capital sometime around the end of the coming year. We intend to grow and continue to use the capital to find new subsidiaries, finance various customer needs, but most importantly, to convince more potential customers of our credibility and trustworthiness. That's what it's all about.
我们希望在明年年底前突破100亿美元的股本规模。我们的目标是继续发展，并利用这些资本设立新的子公司、满足客户的各种融资需求。但最重要的是，用这笔资本去向潜在客户展示我们的可信度和可靠性——这才是我们真正关注的核心。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
Got it. Well, on that note, Thomas, on behalf of the investors on the call, myself, the firm, thank you so much for joining us yet again, even if it was virtual. We're hoping very much to have you again next year in person, and hope you have a wonderful rest of the year.
明白了。那在此，我谨代表本次电话会议上的投资者、我本人以及我们公司，衷心感谢你再次出席这次会议，尽管是以线上方式。我们非常希望明年你能亲自到场，再次与我们见面。祝你今年剩下的时间一切顺利。
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
It was a great pleasure, and thank you very much for listening to me.
非常荣幸参加，也感谢大家愿意聆听我的分享。
William Nance Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
All right. Bye bye.
好的，再见。
Thomas Peterffy Founder & Chairman
Bye.
再见。