Interactive Brokers Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:IBKR) Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call April 16, 2024 4:30 PM ET
互动经纪集团股份有限公司（NASDAQ：IBKR）2024 年第一季度收益电话会议 2024 年 4 月 16 日 下午 4:30 ET
Company Participants 公司参与者
Nancy Stuebe - Director of Investor Relations
南希·斯图贝 - 投资者关系总监
Paul Brody - Chief Financial Officer
保罗·布罗迪 - 首席财务官
Milan Galik - President & Chief Executive Officer
米兰·加利克 - 总裁兼首席执行官
Thomas Peterffy - Founder & Chairman
托马斯·彼得菲 - 创始人兼主席
Conference Call Participants
电话会议参与者
Craig Siegenthaler - Bank of America
克雷格·西根塔勒 - 美国银行
Benjamin Budish - Barclays
本杰明·布迪什 - 巴克莱
James Yaro - Goldman Sachs
詹姆斯·亚罗 - 高盛
Dan Fannon - Jefferies LLC
丹·范农 - 杰富瑞证券公司
Patrick Moley - Piper Sandler
帕特里克·莫利 - 派普桑德勒
Chris Allen - Citi
克里斯·艾伦 - 花旗
Kyle Voigt - KBW
凯尔·福格 - KBW
Macrae Sykes - GAMCO
麦克雷·赛克斯 - GAMCO
Brennan Hawken - UBS
布伦南·霍肯 - 瑞银 UBS
Transcript provided by the Company.
公司提供的成绩单。
Operator 操作员
Good day, and thank you for standing by, and welcome to Interactive Brokers Group First Quarter 2024 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Nancy Stuebe, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
大家好，感谢您的耐心等待，欢迎参加互动经纪集团 2024 年第一季度收益电话会议。【操作员指示】请注意，今天的会议正在录音。现在我想将会议交给今天的发言人，投资者关系总监南希·斯图贝。请开始。
Nancy Stuebe 南希·斯图贝
Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us for our First Quarter 2024 earnings call. Joining us today are Thomas Peterffy, our Founder and Chairman; Milan Galik, our President and CEO; and Paul Brody, our CFO. I will be presenting Milan’s comments on the business, and all three will be available at our Q&A.
下午好，感谢您参加我们 2024 年第一季度收益电话会议。今天与我们一起的有我们的创始人兼董事长 Thomas Peterffy，我们的总裁兼首席执行官 Milan Galik，以及我们的首席财务官 Paul Brody。我将代表 Milan 就业务发表评论，三位将在我们的问答环节中回答问题。
As a reminder, today's call may include forward-looking statements, which represent the
作为提醒，今天的电话可能包含前瞻性声明，这些声明代表
company's belief regarding future events, which by their nature, are not certain and are outside of
公司对未来事件的信念，其性质是不确定的，并且是在其控制范围之外
the company's control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ, possibly materially,
公司的控制。我们的实际结果和财务状况可能会有差异，可能会有重大差异。
from what is indicated in these forward-looking statements. We ask that you refer to the disclaimers in our press release. You should also review a description of risk factors contained in our financial reports filed with the SEC.
根据这些前瞻性声明中所指示的内容。我们要求您参考我们新闻稿中的免责声明。您还应该查阅我们向美国证券交易委员会提交的财务报告中包含的风险因素描述。
This quarter, many of the same major trends we saw in 2023 continued to play out.
今年第一季度，我们在 2023 年看到的许多主要趋势继续发展。
With market indexes on the rise worldwide and the popularity of investing growing, we see global interest from investors who increasingly want broad portfolios, with some invested in securities in their home markets, but a more significant portion invested overseas, particularly in US securities.
随着全球市场指数的上涨和投资热度的增长，我们看到投资者对广泛投资组合的全球兴趣日益增加，其中一些投资于本国市场的证券，但更大比例的投资于海外，特别是美国证券。
Product-wise, industry options contract volumes - both individual securities and 0DTE - were up as their popularity continued. Since the pandemic, average daily volume in OCC options has more than doubled, from about 20 million contracts a day in 2019 to 40 million in 2022, and now a record 47.5 million in the first quarter.
产品方面，行业期权合约交易量 - 个别证券和 0DTE - 由于其持续受欢迎而上升。自大流行病以来，OCC 期权的平均每日交易量已经翻了一番，从 2019 年的每天约 2000 万份合约增加到 2022 年的 4000 万份，现在第一季度创下了创纪录的 4750 万份。
CME futures volumes, though down slightly from last year when investors were trading actively on the direction of interest rates, are up versus last quarter and meaningfully above pre-pandemic levels.
芝加哥商品交易所期货交易量虽然略低于去年，当时投资者积极交易利率走势，但较上一季度有所增加，并显著高于疫情前水平。
And on the equities front, nearly every stock market around the world was up this quarter, with the exceptions of Hong Kong and China. This is a similar pattern to what we saw in 2023.
在股票市场方面，全球几乎每个股市在本季度上涨，除了香港和中国。这与我们在 2023 年看到的情况类似。
The popularity of the “Magnificent Seven” technology names continues, which has meant that many investors hold onto their positions and are distinctly not looking to make any changes like selling them and buying new names. The Magnificent Seven are not gripping the index quite as firmly as last year – when they represented 75% of the S&P 500’s first quarter performance, versus 43% in this quarter – but their stock price strength means investors have not needed to look elsewhere for gains, and as happened in 2023, industry equities volumes are down again as a result.
“辉煌七巨头”科技股的热度持续，这意味着许多投资者坚守他们的头寸，明显不打算做出任何改变，比如卖出它们并购买新的股票。辉煌七巨头并没有像去年那样牢牢控制指数——去年他们占标普 500 指数第一季度表现的 75%，而本季度只占 43%——但他们的股价强劲意味着投资者不需要寻找其他地方获取收益，正如 2023 年发生的那样，行业股票交易量再次下降。
What all of the above has meant for our business starts with strong account growth as we add more investors to our platform, both institutional and individual. In the first quarter, we added 184,000 new accounts, second only to the meme stock days of the first quarter 2021. We added, in this one quarter, twice the number of accounts we added in all of 2019. New accounts meant more cash in those accounts, which helped raise our client credit balances to a record $104.9 billion. Our client equity was up 36% to $466 billion, meaning we are approaching half a trillion dollars of client assets.
以上所有对我们业务的影响始于强劲的账户增长，随着我们将更多投资者加入我们的平台，无论是机构投资者还是个人投资者。在第一季度，我们新增了 184,000 个新账户，仅次于 2021 年第一季度的“迷因股票”日子。在这一个季度，我们新增的账户数量是 2019 年全年新增账户数量的两倍。新账户意味着这些账户中有更多现金，这有助于将我们的客户信用余额提高到创纪录的 1,049 亿美元。我们的客户权益增长了 36%，达到 4660 亿美元，这意味着我们正接近拥有价值半万亿美元的客户资产。
Volume-wise, we saw strong contract volumes in options, up 24% in the quarter and significantly ahead of the industry; and slightly weaker volumes in futures and equities, similar to the industry. However, rising equity markets have led clients to feel more comfortable with taking on risk, so they took on more assertive positions, which increased our exposure fee revenue; and took on more leverage to bolster their positions, increasing our margin loans – which exceeded $50 billion for the first time since 2021 - and our margin interest income.
在交易量方面，我们看到期权合约的交易量强劲增长，季度增长 24%，远超行业水平；而期货和股票的交易量略有下降，与行业水平相似。然而，股市上涨使客户更愿意承担风险，因此他们采取了更加积极的头寸，增加了我们的敞口费收入；并采取更多杠杆以支撑其头寸，增加了我们的保证金贷款——自 2021 年以来首次超过 500 亿美元——以及我们的保证金利息收入。
This translated into strong financial results. Commission revenue was second only to the meme-stock spike of the first quarter of 2021, and net interest income reached a record, as did total revenues. We always focus on our expenses, meaning our pretax income also reached a record, and our pretax profit margin remained at an industry-leading 72%.
这导致了强劲的财务业绩。佣金收入仅次于 2021 年第一季度的模因股票飙升，净利息收入达到历史纪录，总收入也是如此。我们始终关注我们的支出，这意味着我们的税前收入也达到了历史纪录，我们的税前利润率仍保持在业内领先的 72%。
In recognition of this, and as a sign of our confidence in our business model and growth potential, we revisited the amount of dividend we pay, and decided to increase it to $0.25 a quarter. We recognized that the dividend was unchanged since we initiated it at $0.10 in 2011, a time when we had 170,000 accounts, quarterly earnings of $222 million and capital of $4.4 billion.
鉴于此，并且作为对我们商业模式和增长潜力的信心的体现，我们重新审视了我们支付的股息金额，并决定将其增加到每季度 0.25 美元。我们意识到自 2011 年以 0.10 美元启动以来，股息一直未变，当时我们拥有 17 万个账户，季度收入为 2.22 亿美元，资本为 44 亿美元。
Today we enjoy a strong capital position, which will allow us to be opportunistic in the M&A space should the right opportunity arise, but we would like to acknowledge our shareholders by returning some capital to them.
今天我们拥有强劲的资本实力，这将使我们在并购领域有机会时能够机会主义，但我们希望通过向股东返还一些资本来表达我们的感激之情。
In terms of how the business looked on the client front, our accounts and client equity grew fastest in Europe and Asia, similar to what I mentioned earlier - growing numbers of investors worldwide wanting access to international, and particularly US, markets.
就客户前端业务表现而言，我们在欧洲和亚洲的账户和客户权益增长最快，与我之前提到的情况类似 - 全球越来越多的投资者希望进入国际市场，特别是美国市场。
Individuals saw the fastest account growth among our five client segments, with introducing brokers and proprietary traders close behind. On the client equity side, financial advisors grew the fastest, followed by individuals and i-brokers.
个人客户是我们五个客户群体中增长最快的，紧随其后的是介绍经纪人和专有交易员。在客户权益方面，金融顾问增长最快，其次是个人客户和介绍经纪人。
Proprietary traders had the fastest commission growth, while net interest growth was led by introducing brokers, followed by hedge funds and individuals.
专有交易员的佣金增长速度最快，而净利息增长由介绍经纪人领先，其次是对冲基金和个人。
Speaking of introducing brokers, our pipeline of potential clients remains healthy. There are several of these opportunities-- about a couple dozen of them - at various stages. Some are in the testing stage; others have started onboarding so-called “Friends and Family accounts”, where they test the waters and make sure that everything is working; while others are in the prospect stage to figure out what the optimal way for them to interface with us is.
说到介绍经纪商，我们潜在客户的渠道仍然健康。有几个这样的机会 - 大约有几十个 - 处于不同阶段。有些处于测试阶段；其他人已经开始启动所谓的“亲朋好友账户”，在那里他们试水并确保一切正常；而其他人则处于前景阶段，以找出与我们接口的最佳方式。
This can take time, since we offer a variety of ways for an introducing broker to come onto our platform: on the one hand, it can be as simple as a broker White-Labeling our services, in which case the startup is very quick; or on the other it can be quite complex for i-brokers who want to have their own client-facing user interfaces, so they take longer to integrate with us. In between these two there are many different setups with varying degrees of nuance and distinctions, as the broker picks and chooses the level of integration and coupling that works best based on its needs and on what it is able to support in-house.
这可能需要一些时间，因为我们为介绍经纪人进入我们的平台提供了多种方式：一方面，可以简单地让经纪人白标我们的服务，这样启动非常迅速；另一方面，对于希望拥有自己面向客户的用户界面的介绍经纪人来说，整合时间可能会更长。在这两者之间，有许多不同的设置，具有不同程度的微妙和区别，因为经纪人根据自身需求和内部支持能力最佳选择适合的整合和耦合级别。
In terms of new product introductions, we had a busy quarter.
在新产品推出方面，我们度过了一个繁忙的季度。
We are pleased to introduce our High Touch Prime Brokerage Service, which we announced last week. Hedge funds in our High Touch program will have a dedicated relationship manager, and direct access to subject matter experts as well as to an in-person 24x5, global outsourced trading desk. We consider the mission of the High Touch Service to be “Find a Way to Yes” for our clients’ requests. For those hedge funds listening – I am sure there is a piece of your portfolio you could consider allocating to us.
我们很高兴介绍我们上周宣布的高端专属经纪服务。我们高端计划中的对冲基金将拥有专属关系经理，并直接接触专家，以及 24x5 的全球外包交易台。我们认为高端服务的使命是为客户的要求“找到一种方式”。对于那些在听的对冲基金 - 我相信您的投资组合中有一部分可以考虑分配给我们。
Regarding our platforms, we introduced IBKR Desktop, a streamlined, simpler-to-use, next-generation desktop trading application, for Windows and Mac. IBKR Desktop is now sufficiently resource-rich, stable and available to our clients. We’ve added multisort screeners, option analysis and other enhancements, to name a few.
关于我们的平台，我们推出了 IBKR 桌面版，这是一款简化、更易于使用的下一代桌面交易应用程序，适用于 Windows 和 Mac。 IBKR 桌面版现在已经足够资源丰富、稳定，并且可供我们的客户使用。我们增加了多种筛选器、期权分析和其他增强功能，仅举几例。
For our flagship Trader Workstation, we added a multi-stock tax loss harvesting tool. And for IBKR Mobile, we re-engineered information architecture and navigation from the ground up.
对于我们的旗舰交易工作站，我们增加了一个多股票税务损失收割工具。对于 IBKR 移动版，我们从头开始重新设计了信息架构和导航。
Our registered investment advisor clients got a host of new tools this quarter, including an improved Message Center, a reworked Advisor Portal menu with new features for managing contacts, accounts and portfolios, and ways for the platform to assist with filing their Form ADVs.
我们的注册投资顾问客户在本季度获得了一系列新工具，包括改进的消息中心，重新设计的顾问门户菜单，具有管理联系人、账户和投资组合新功能，并提供平台协助填写他们的 Form ADV 的方式。
Automating substantial parts of the brokerage business for client success is the heart of what we do. There is much we are looking forward to, and much work to be done, as there always is, and as every software developer will tell you. We are as busy as we’ve ever been and continue to see global demand for access to all markets. This trend, and our ability to serve it with a much lower cost structure and a much broader product and tool set, is what sets us apart, and will continue to do so in the years ahead.
自动化经纪业务的重要部分以实现客户成功是我们工作的核心。我们期待着许多事情，也有许多工作要做，就像每个软件开发人员会告诉你的那样。我们一直忙碌，继续看到全球对所有市场的访问需求。这一趋势，以及我们以更低的成本结构和更广泛的产品和工具集来服务它的能力，是我们与众不同的地方，也将在未来继续如此。
With that, I will turn the call over to Paul Brody. Paul?
随着这一点，我将把电话交给保罗·布罗迪。保罗？
Paul Brody 保罗·布罗迪
Thank you, Nancy. Good afternoon, everyone. I will review our first quarter results, and then of course, we’ll open it up for questions.
谢谢，南希。大家下午好。我将回顾我们的第一季度业绩，然后当然，我们会开放提问。
Starting with our Revenue items on page 3 of the release, we are pleased with our financial results this quarter, as we again produced record net revenues and pretax income.
从我们在发布文件第 3 页的收入项目开始，我们对本季度的财务业绩感到满意，因为我们再次创造了创纪录的净收入和税前收入。
Commissions rose versus last year’s first quarter, reaching $379 million. This quarter, we saw higher trading volumes from our growing base of active customers, particularly in options, which set a new quarterly volume record.
佣金与去年第一季度相比上升，达到 3.79 亿美元。本季度，我们看到来自不断增长的活跃客户群体的交易量增加，特别是在期权交易方面，创下了新的季度交易量纪录。
Net interest income also reached a quarterly record of $747 million, reflecting a risk-on environment in the quarter versus last year that led to more margin borrowing as well as higher yields on our margin loans and segregated cash portfolio. These were partially offset by the higher interest paid to our customers on their cash balances. Interactive Brokers passes through to them all rate hikes above the first 50 basis points on their qualified funds, which makes us attractive compared to other brokers and banks and competitive with money market funds.
净利息收入也达到了 7.47 亿美元的季度纪录，反映出与去年同期相比的风险偏好环境，导致更多的保证金借款以及保证金贷款和隔离现金组合的收益率上升。这些部分被支付给客户现金余额的利息所部分抵消。互动经纪将超过首个 50 个基点的所有利率上调传递给他们的合格资金，这使我们与其他经纪商和银行相比更具吸引力，并与货币市场基金竞争。
Other fees and services generated $59 million, up 37% from the prior year, driven by the risk-on positioning of customers in the quarter. As we report in the Financial Highlights on page 1 of our earnings release, the primary factor was an increase in risk exposure fees, with a contribution from FDIC sweep fees as well.
其他费用和服务收入为 5900 万美元，比去年同期增长 37%，这是由于客户在本季度的风险偏好所推动的。正如我们在财务亮点中报告的那样，主要因素是风险敞口费用的增加，同时还有来自 FDIC 扫描费用的贡献。
Other income includes gains and losses on our investments, our currency diversification strategy and principal transactions. Note that many of these non-core items are excluded in our adjusted earnings. Without these excluded items, Other income was $31 million for the quarter.
其他收入包括我们的投资收益和损失、我们的货币多元化策略以及主要交易。请注意，这些非核心项目中的许多项目在我们的调整后收益中被排除。在排除这些项目后，本季度的其他收入为 3100 万美元。
Turning to expenses, Execution, Clearing and Distribution costs were $101 million in the quarter, up 6% over the year-ago quarter on higher volumes in options, which carry higher fees.
转向费用方面，执行、结算和分配成本在本季度为 1.01 亿美元，较去年同期增长 6%，主要是由于期权交易量增加，而期权交易费用较高。
As a percent of commission revenues, Execution & Clearing costs were 21% in the first quarter for a Gross Transactional Profit margin of 79%.
作为佣金收入的百分比，执行和结算成本在第一季度占 21%，毛交易利润率为 79%。
We calculate this by excluding from "Execution, Clearing and Distribution” $21 million of non-transaction-based costs, predominantly market data, which do not have a direct commission revenue component.
我们通过从“执行、结算和分销”中排除 2,100 万美元的非交易成本（主要是市场数据），这些成本没有直接的佣金收入组成部分来计算这一数值。
Compensation & Benefits expense was $145 million for the quarter, for a ratio of Compensation expense to Adjusted Net Revenues of 12%, down slightly from last year’s quarter. We remain focused on expense discipline, as reflected in our slowing the staff increase to 3% over the prior year. Our headcount at March 31st was 2,956.
本季度的薪酬与福利支出为 1.45 亿美元，薪酬支出与调整后净收入的比率为 12%，略低于去年同期。我们继续专注于控制支出，这体现在我们将员工增长率放缓至上一年的 3%。截至 3 月 31 日，我们的员工总数为 2,956 人。
G&A expenses were $50 million, up from the year-ago quarter on higher advertising and legal expenses.
广告和法律费用增加，G&A 费用为 5,000 万美元，较去年同期增加。
Our pretax margin was 72% for the quarter.
本季度我们的税前利润率为 72%。
Income Taxes of $71 million reflects the sum of the public company’s $36 million and the operating companies’ $35 million. The public company’s adjusted effective tax rate was 17.2%, within its usual range and similar to the prior year.
所得税为 7100 万美元，反映了上市公司的 3600 万美元和运营公司的 3500 万美元之和。上市公司的调整后有效税率为 17.2%，在其通常范围内，与去年类似。
Moving to our balance sheet on page 5 of the Release, the consistent strength of our business and our healthy balance sheet supports our raising the dividend from $0.40 per year to $1.00, returning capital to shareholders while still maintaining an ample capital base for the current business and future opportunities.
转至我们发布文件第 5 页的资产负债表，我们业务的稳健实力和健康的资产负债表支持我们将股息从每年 0.40 美元提高到 1.00 美元，向股东返还资本，同时仍保持充足的资本基础以支持当前业务和未来机会。
Our total assets ended the quarter 11% higher at $132 billion, with growth driven by margin lending to both new and existing customers.
我们的总资产在本季度结束时达到 1320 亿美元，较上涨 11%，增长主要由向新老客户提供保证金贷款推动。
We continue to have no long-term debt.
我们继续没有长期债务。
We maintain a balance sheet geared towards supporting growth in our existing business and helping us win new business by demonstrating our strength to prospective clients and partners.
我们保持资产负债表的平衡，以支持现有业务的增长，并通过向潜在客户和合作伙伴展示我们的实力来赢得新业务。
In our operating data, on pages 6 and 7, our contract volumes in options for all customers rose 24% over the prior-year quarter, well above industry growth. Futures contract volumes and stock share volumes declined, as they did across the industry.
在我们的运营数据中，在第 6 页和第 7 页，我们所有客户期权合约交易量较去年同期增长了 24%，远远超过行业增长。期货合约交易量和股票交易量下降，与整个行业的情况相同。
The decrease in stock share volume occurred in tandem with clients gravitating to larger, higher quality names, with lower trading in pink sheet and other very low-priced stocks. In fact, despite the decline in share volume the total notional value of brokerage shares traded was up in many markets, particularly in the US.
股票份额交易量的下降与客户转向规模更大、质量更高的股票名称有关，粉红表和其他低价股的交易较少。事实上，尽管股票交易量下降，但在许多市场，特别是在美国，经纪股票交易的名义价值总额有所增加。
On page 7, you can see that total Customer DARTs were 2.4 million trades per day, up 14% from the prior year and especially strong in options, followed by stocks and foreign exchange.
在第 7 页，您可以看到客户总 DARTs 为每天 240 万笔交易，比去年同期增长 14%，尤其是期权交易表现强劲，其次是股票和外汇。
Commission per Cleared Commissionable Order of $2.93 was down from last year, due to a mix of smaller average order sizes in stocks and options and larger in futures. Stocks and options contributed higher overall volumes but smaller average order sizes, while futures contributed lower volume with a larger average order size.
每笔已结算佣金订单的佣金为 2.93 美元，较去年有所下降，这是由于股票和期权的平均订单规模较小，而期货的平均订单规模较大。股票和期权贡献了更高的总交易量，但平均订单规模较小，而期货贡献了较低的交易量，但平均订单规模较大。
Page 8 shows our Net Interest Margin numbers. Total GAAP net interest income was $747 million for the quarter, up 17%, while our NIM net interest income was $762 million, or $15 million higher. In the NIM computation, we include some income that for GAAP purposes is classified as Other Fees or Other Income, but we believe is more appropriately considered interest.
第 8 页显示了我们的净利差数字。本季度总 GAAP 净利息收入为 7.47 亿美元，增长 17％，而我们的 NIM 净利息收入为 7.62 亿美元，高出 1500 万美元。在 NIM 计算中，我们包括一些被归类为其他费用或其他收入的收入，但我们认为更适当地将其视为利息。
Our Net Interest Income reflects strength in margin loan and segregated cash interest, partially offset by higher interest expense on customer cash balances.
我们的净利息收入反映了保证金贷款和隔离现金利息的强劲，部分抵消了客户现金余额利息支出的增加。
Most central banks around the world, including the Federal Reserve, held interest rates steady this quarter. Exceptions included a rate rise in Japan from negative 10 basis points to zero to positive 10 basis points, and a 25-basis point rate cut in the Swiss franc benchmark.
世界各地的大多数央行，包括美联储，本季度保持利率不变。例外情况包括日本将利率从负 10 个基点上调至零到正 10 个基点，以及瑞士法郎基准利率下调 25 个基点。
Reflecting the rise in benchmark rates over the year, our segregated cash interest income rose 26% on a 2% increase in average balances, while margin loan interest rose by 42% on a 19% increase in average balances.
反映了基准利率在一年内上升，我们的分离现金利息收入增长了 26%，平均余额增加了 2%，而保证金贷款利息因平均余额增加了 19%而增长了 42%。
The average duration of our portfolio remained at less than 30 days. With the US dollar yield curve continuing to be inverted, we have been maximizing what we earn by focusing on higher short-term yields, rather than accept the significantly lower yields of longer maturities. This strategy allows us to maintain a relatively tight maturity match between our assets and liabilities.
我们投资组合的平均期限仍然保持在 30 天以下。随着美元收益率曲线继续倒挂，我们一直通过专注于更高的短期收益来最大化我们的收益，而不是接受较低的长期到期收益。这种策略使我们能够在资产和负债之间保持相对紧密的到期匹配。
Securities lending net interest has not been as strong as in prior quarters for three main reasons. First, throughout the industry, overall demand for shorting stocks has fallen. An extremely strong stock market, up in the US nearly 30% in the past year, and 10% in the first quarter alone, means fewer people are looking to put on shorts when the overall market trend is so soundly upward. Second, there are fewer “hard to borrow” names industry-wide, not only because the overall market is rising sharply, but also due to weakness in some of the drivers relevant to securities lending, including significantly fewer IPOs, low market volatility, and less merger & acquisition activity. Finally, as noted on previous calls, higher average interest rates versus prior year periods means more of what we earn from securities lending is classified as interest on “segregated cash”. To more accurately compare our securities lending revenue with last year, we estimate that if the additional interest earned on cash collateral were reported under “Securities Borrowed and Loaned”, it would have been $12 million higher, or $38 million.
证券借贷净利息并不像之前的季度那样强劲，主要有三个原因。首先，在整个行业中，对做空股票的整体需求下降了。美国股市过去一年上涨了近 30％，仅在第一季度就上涨了 10％，这意味着当整体市场趋势如此明显向上时，更少的人愿意做空头。其次，整个行业中“难以借入”的股票名称减少了，不仅因为整体市场急剧上涨，还因为与证券借贷相关的一些驱动因素的疲软，包括大幅减少的 IPO、低市场波动性和较少的并购活动。最后，正如之前通话中提到的，与前一年相比较高的平均利率意味着我们从证券借贷中获得的更多收入被归类为“隔离现金”的利息。为了更准确地将我们的证券借贷收入与去年进行比较，我们估计，如果现金抵押品上获得的额外利息被报告为“借入和借出的证券”，那么它将高出 1200 万美元，或者为 3800 万美元。
Interest on Customer Credit Balances, the interest we pay to our customers on the cash in their accounts, rose on both higher rates in nearly all currencies and higher balances from new account growth. As we have noted many times in the past, the high interest rates we pay on customer cash – currently 4.83% on qualified US dollar balances - is a significant driver of new customers. Fully rate-sensitive customer balances were about $18.5 billion this quarter, versus $17.2 billion in the year ago quarter. And firm equity, most of which consists of interest-earning assets, increased 20% over the prior year.
客户信用余额利息，我们支付给客户的账户现金利息，在几乎所有货币的利率上升以及新账户增长带来的余额增加。正如我们过去多次指出的那样，我们支付给客户现金的高利率 - 目前合格美元余额为 4.83％ - 是吸引新客户的重要因素。本季度完全受利率影响的客户余额约为 185 亿美元，而去年同期为 172 亿美元。公司权益，其中大部分是利息收入资产，较去年同期增长了 20％。
Now, for our estimates of the impact of changes in rates. Given market expectations of rate cuts sometime in 2024, we estimate the effect of a 25-basis point decrease in the benchmark Fed Funds rate to be a $58 million reduction in annual net interest income.
现在，关于利率变化影响的估计。鉴于市场预期 2024 年某个时候会降息，我们估计联邦基金利率基准下降 25 个基点的影响将导致年净利息收入减少 5800 万美元。
Note that our starting point for this estimate is March 31st, with the Fed Funds effective rate at 5.33%, and balances as of that date. Any growth in our balance sheet and interest-earning assets would reduce this impact.
请注意，我们对这一估计的起点是 3 月 31 日，联邦基金有效利率为 5.33%，以及该日期的余额。我们资产负债表和利息收入资产的任何增长都会减少这种影响。
About 25% of our customer cash balances is not in US dollars, so estimates of a US rate change exclude those currencies. We estimate the effect of decreases in all the relevant non-USD benchmark rates would reduce annual net interest income by $18 million for each 25-basis point decrease in those benchmarks.
我们大约 25%的客户现金余额不是以美元计价，因此对美元利率变动的估计不包括这些货币。我们估计所有相关非美元基准利率下降的影响将使每个基准利率下降 25 个基点，年度净利息收入减少 1800 万美元。
At a high level, a full 1% decrease in all benchmark rates would decrease our annual net interest income by about $304 million. This takes into account rate-sensitive customer balances and firm equity.
从高层次来看，所有基准利率下降 1%，将使我们的年度净利息收入减少约 3.04 亿美元。这考虑了对利率敏感的客户余额和公司股本。
In conclusion, we started the year with another financially strong quarter in net revenues and pretax margin, reflecting our continued ability to grow our customer base and deliver on our core value proposition to customers while scaling the business. We raised our dividend in recognition of our financial strength. Our business strategy continues to be effective: automating as much of the brokerage business as possible and expanding what we offer while minimizing what we charge.
总的来说，我们以另一个财务强劲的季度开始了这一年，净收入和税前利润率均表现出色，反映了我们持续增长客户群体并在扩大业务规模的同时向客户提供核心价值主张的能力。我们提高了股息以表彰我们的财务实力。我们的业务策略继续有效：尽可能自动化经纪业务的大部分，并在最大程度减少收费的同时扩大我们提供的服务范围。
With that, I'll turn it over to the moderator, and we'll open up the line for questions.0
随着这一点，我将把话题交给主持人，我们将开放提问环节。
Question-and-Answer Session
问答环节
Operator 操作员
[Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Craig Siegenthaler from Bank of America.
【操作员指示】我们的第一个问题来自美国银行的 Craig Siegenthaler。
Craig Siegenthaler 克雷格·西根塔勒
I wanted to start with capital management with the dividend hike. The dividend payout is still just 15% of profits. And you have upwards of $15 billion of equity capital, and this is growing each quarter. So, what should our read-through be on the increase? Should we expect additional increases as profits grow each year? And is this somewhat related to a lack of M&A opportunities following the two deals that broke down that you highlighted on the 4Q call in January?
我想从股息提高开始进行资本管理。股息支付仍然只占利润的 15%。您拥有超过 150 亿美元的股本，而且这一数字每个季度都在增长。那么，我们对这一增长应该有怎样的理解？我们是否应该预期随着利润每年增长会有额外的增加？这是否与您在一月份第四季度电话会议上强调的两笔交易破裂后缺乏并购机会有些相关？
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
Thanks for the question. So the $15 billion equity, what you have to take into consideration is that a lot of that capital is needed to run the business. So what remains as usable for M&A is significantly smaller.
谢谢提问。所以 150 亿美元的股权，你需要考虑的是其中很多资金是用于经营业务的。因此，可用于并购的资金实际上要少得多。
Now for the dividend, we are happy with the number that we came up with. It's approximately 15% payout ratio of the earnings. And we believe that this amount of dividend is sustainable, yet it allows us to continue to build the capital that we enjoy to have for the potential M&A opportunities.
就股息而言，我们对我们提出的数字感到满意。这大约是收益的 15%支付比率。我们相信这个股息金额是可持续的，同时也让我们能够继续积累我们喜欢拥有的用于潜在并购机会的资本。
Craig Siegenthaler 克雷格·西根塔勒
And just as my follow-up, I wanted to get your perspective on the improving retail engagement backdrop. And we're seeing this at your company and other companies across multiple metrics-- margin loan growth, activity rates and trading, organic growth with the account growth acceleration. So I'm just wondering how much upside do you expect from the individual investor business if markets continue to recover here. And we assume 2021 is not repeatable again, but 2023 was likely a floor. So any reference points that would be helpful?
正如我之前的跟进，我想听听您对零售参与背景改善的看法。我们看到贵公司以及其他公司在多个指标上都有所改善——保证金贷款增长、活跃率和交易、账户增长加速的有机增长。我只是想知道，如果市场继续恢复，您对个人投资者业务有多大的增长空间。我们假设 2021 年的情况不会再次发生，但 2023 年可能是一个底线。有什么参考点可以帮助我们吗？
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
It's very hard for me to speculate as to how it's going to continue. What we see is increasing engagement of what you would call retail traders in the options markets. And they have become more comfortable with the options. They recognize how flexible of a financial instrument an option is. You can use it to trade on leverage. You can use it to generate income. You can use it to speculate. And as Paul have mentioned a little earlier, we had seen significant growth in the options volume. So that, I think, is going to continue, and the public will get more and more comfortable with the financial instrument.
我很难猜测未来会如何发展。我们看到的是零售交易者在期权市场中参与度增加。他们对期权变得更加熟悉。他们认识到期权是多么灵活的金融工具。您可以用它进行杠杆交易。您可以用它产生收入。您可以用它进行投机。正如保罗稍早提到的，我们看到期权交易量显著增长。因此，我认为这种趋势会持续下去，公众会对这种金融工具变得越来越熟悉。
As to are we going to see the same levels of volume and account growth as we've seen at the beginning of the pandemic? Probably not. If you remember, that was a very different world for a few months. The markets dropped very significantly, and there was a lot of volatility in the market. Everybody was closed at home. There was not that much to do other than watching Netflix shows and open brokerage accounts and start trading, which was then followed by the meme stock mania. So, I do not expect something like this to happen anytime soon.
关于我们是否会看到与大流行初期相同水平的交易量和账户增长？可能不会。如果你还记得，那是一个非常不同的世界，持续了几个月。市场大幅下跌，市场波动很大。每个人都呆在家里。除了观看 Netflix 节目、开设经纪账户并开始交易外，别无他事，随后是追随的模因股票狂热。因此，我不指望类似的情况会很快发生。
Operator 操作员
And our next question comes from Benjamin Budish from Barclays.
我们的下一个问题来自巴克莱的本杰明·布迪什。
Ben Budish 本·布迪什
Maybe one for Paul. You mentioned in your prepared remarks that you were sort of leaning into the shorter end of the curve, given the inversion in the yield curve. I just wanted to check, that sounds pretty consistent with your previously-communicated approach to risk management. But is there anything to read there? Like if the yield curve were to invert and maybe given the knowledge you have of your customer base or the behavior you've observed, does that suggest that at some point in the future, you might be comfortable sort of extending the duration? Or should we assume maybe a more consistent, very, very low risk management approach to the balance sheet?
也许是保罗的一个问题。您在准备好的讲话中提到，鉴于收益曲线的倒挂，您似乎更倾向于较短端的曲线。我只是想确认一下，这似乎与您之前沟通的风险管理方法相当一致。但是有什么可以从中推断出来吗？比如，如果收益曲线倒挂，也许考虑到您对客户群体或您观察到的行为的了解，这是否暗示在未来某个时候，您可能会考虑延长期限？或者我们应该假设可能会采取更一致、非常低风险管理方法来管理资产负债表？
Thomas Peterffy 托马斯·彼得菲
Well, I'm responsible for the investment of these monies. So -- and this is Thomas -- as long as the yield curve remains inverted, we are going to stay with our current profile. And at the time when that changes, we will consider extending our maturity depending upon the circumstances.
好的，我负责这些资金的投资。所以 - 这是托马斯 - 只要收益曲线保持倒挂，我们将继续保持我们目前的配置。当情况发生变化时，我们将考虑根据情况延长我们的到期日。
Ben Budish 本·布迪什
Okay. Appreciate that. And then maybe one, just another kind of follow-up to Craig's question on the dividend. I know there's a lot of focus on M&A. And if supposedly, nothing were to materialize, would you consider, in the future, a more, like, dividend growth -- more of a dividend growth cadence? Or are you kind of more hopeful on M&A? Just sort of curious how you're thinking about like the range of outcomes. It sounds like the $0.25 is more fixed rather than like a 15% payout ratio. But I'm wondering if that would sort of change or could it potentially change in the future?
好的。感谢。然后也许再跟进一下克雷格关于股息的问题。我知道大家都在关注并购。如果假设没有任何实质进展，你们会考虑未来更多像是股息增长 - 更像是股息增长的节奏吗？还是更倾向于并购？我很好奇你们是如何考虑各种可能结果的。听起来 0.25 美元更像是固定的，而不是 15%的派息比率。但我想知道这种情况是否会改变，或者未来有可能改变吗？
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
So if you look at it, it took a number of years to raise the dividend from $0.10 to $0.25. So I'm not saying that it's going to take us another decade to do the same, but we will remain nimble. Capital situation is very important to us. The fortress balance sheet is something that we really enjoy. We believe that it attracts the institutional clients. They see a healthy company despite that we do not have 150 year-long history like some of our big competitors in the hedge fund space. We believe that this rock-solid capital position is attractive to the investors and clients. So we would like to maintain it. So this $1 per year dividend, I think, strikes a good balance. So for now, I think this is it.
所以，如果你看一下，从 0.10 美元提高到 0.25 美元的股息花了几年的时间。我并不是说我们要再花十年的时间做同样的事情，但我们会保持灵活性。资本状况对我们非常重要。坚实的资产负债表是我们真正喜欢的东西。我们相信这吸引了机构客户。他们看到一个健康的公司，尽管我们在对冲基金领域没有像一些大竞争对手那样拥有 150 年历史。我们相信这种坚实的资本位置对投资者和客户具有吸引力。因此，我们希望保持这种状况。所以，我认为每年 1 美元的股息达到了一个良好的平衡。就目前而言，我认为就是这样。
Operator 操作员
And our next question comes from James Yaro from Goldman Sachs.
我们的下一个问题来自高盛的詹姆斯·亚罗。
James Yaro 詹姆斯·亚罗
My first one's on account growth. Accounts grew 25% year-on-year in the first quarter, and I found the comments on the fact that you're working with a number of i-brokers to potentially onboard on the platform over time, quite interesting. In light of this, maybe you could just comment on how sustainable you view this recent account growth? And maybe if not, maybe you could just break down what customer types or geographies are driving the stronger growth versus a few quarters ago.
我的第一个问题是关于账户增长的。第一季度，账户同比增长了 25％，我发现您正在与多家 i-经纪商合作，有望随着时间推移将其纳入平台的评论相当有趣。鉴于此，也许您可以就您如何看待最近的账户增长的可持续性发表评论？如果不行的话，也许您可以详细说明是哪些客户类型或地理区域推动了较强的增长，相对于几个季度前。
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
The strongest segment in terms of number of new accounts was the individual accounts, just like what happened in the last quarter of last year. After that, it was the introducing brokers. Now introducing brokers are a very important segment because they help us attract accounts in their local jurisdictions that may be less sophisticated accounts than the ones that come to us directly. We think this is very sustainable. We continue to add tools to our platform. We have a pipeline of introducing brokers that has around 2 to 3 dozen different companies integrating with us as we speak.
就新增账户数量而言，个人账户是最强势的部分，就像去年最后一个季度发生的情况一样。之后是介绍经纪商。现在介绍经纪商是一个非常重要的部分，因为他们帮助我们吸引本地司法管辖区内的账户，这些账户可能比直接来找我们的账户不够复杂。我们认为这是非常可持续的。我们继续向我们的平台添加工具。我们有一个介绍经纪商的管道，大约有 2 到 3 打不同公司正在与我们整合。
We have been talking about the two larger introducing brokers for a while. So we have already announced that the first one of them has been with us and is happily trading, and the second one has finally started operations. They are starting slowly with one single geographical location in the Middle East. They have opened a few dozen accounts so far. They are in the so-called ‘Friends and Family’ mode, but they're going to be ramping it up. And what we are hoping to do with this global bank-- one of the top 10 global banks out there -- what we're hoping to do is, we are hoping to integrate with them fast going forward, so that new countries can be added.
我们已经讨论了两家较大的介绍经纪商一段时间了。所以我们已经宣布他们中的第一家已经加入我们，并且正在愉快地交易，第二家最终也开始运营。他们在中东地区的一个单一地理位置缓慢启动。到目前为止，他们已经开设了几十个账户。他们目前处于所谓的“亲朋好友”模式，但他们将加速发展。我们希望与这家全球银行——全球前十大银行之一——快速整合，以便可以添加新的国家。
Now what I have to do here is manage your expectations somewhat. We are dealing with a wealth management branch of a multinational bank that is basically starting a new business of attracting self-traders. So we are not talking about migrating a large number of accounts. But what we are hoping for is a healthy new business for this global bank, that is going to be then gradually onboarding new accounts to us.
现在我在这里需要做的是在一定程度上管理您的期望。我们正在处理的是一家跨国银行的财富管理部门，基本上正在启动吸引自营交易者的新业务。因此，我们不是在谈论迁移大量账户。但我们希望的是为这家全球银行带来一个健康的新业务，然后逐渐将新账户引入我们这里。
James Yaro 詹姆斯·亚罗
Okay. That's very clear. Maybe just on securities lending. Activity there continues to be somewhat subdued across the industry as well as for you. Maybe just your views on what gets this part of the business going.
好的。非常清楚。也许只是关于证券借贷。在整个行业以及对您来说，那里的活动仍然有些冷淡。也许您对如何推动这部分业务的看法。
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
Paul, would you like to take this one?
保罗，你想接这个吗？
Paul Brody 保罗·布罗迪
Yes. Sure. So as usual, there's a baseline that grows as our customer base grows. Having said that, that baseline on the short side has been retreating over the last quite a number of months now, across the industry. There's less interest in shorting stock. So that's on the one side. And then on the other, really, where we do quite well in lending stocks that are in great demand, is sure to drive that as well because we can only lend it to other people who are going short. So that tends to go down.
是的。当然。所以像往常一样，随着我们的客户群增长，基线也在增长。话虽如此，短期基线在过去的几个月里一直在下降，整个行业都是如此。对做空股票的兴趣减少了。这是一方面。另一方面，我们在借出需求旺盛的股票方面做得很好，这肯定也会推动，因为我们只能将其借给其他打算做空的人。因此，这种情况往往会下降。
And we've built great tools for recognizing what the rates should be and taking advantage of them to the best we can. But there are only so many opportunities out there in the market. And there really haven't been any extremely hot stocks, if you will, very high hard-to-borrow rate stocks. And that drives the business as well. So those will come and go. And when they show up, we have the tools to make the most of it.
我们已经建立了出色的工具来识别利率应该是多少，并充分利用这些机会。但市场上的机会毕竟有限。实际上，一直没有出现任何极其炙手可热的股票，即非常高的难以借入利率的股票。这也推动了业务的发展。这些机会会来了又去。当它们出现时，我们有工具来充分利用。
Operator 操作员
And our next question comes from Dan Fannon from Jefferies LLC.
我们的下一个问题来自 Jefferies LLC 的 Dan Fannon。
Daniel Fannon 丹尼尔·范农
Just was curious in the quarter how many introducing brokers were onboarded to the platform. And then if you could talk about the 2 to 3 dozen, you clearly have some of the large -- you mentioned some large global banks, but maybe just the average size as we think about that opportunity that's in the pipeline currently.
只是好奇在这个季度有多少引荐经纪人加入了平台。然后，如果您能谈谈那 2 到 3 打，您显然有一些大型的--您提到了一些大型的全球银行，但也许只是平均规模，当我们考虑目前在管道中的机会时。
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
So the 2 or 3 dozens are integrations, in general. They may be a large financial adviser who have decided to interface with us electronically or they could be introducing brokers. The sizes vary. We typically get introducing brokers that are just starting off. And from time to time, we get an introducing broker that decided to change their prime brokers. In Asia, we have just gotten online a couple of virtual banks. We have finished the integration of the large global bank that I mentioned a few minutes ago. We have an SEC-registered adviser that integrated with us and went online. And then we have many, many in the funnel at various stages. Some of them are still trying to figure out what the best way for them to integrate with us is, while others are busy integrating, and then the third group is already doing some test trades.
因此，大约有 2 到 3 打家公司进行整合。它们可能是决定与我们进行电子接口的大型财务顾问，也可能是介绍经纪商。规模各异。我们通常会得到一些刚刚起步的介绍经纪商。不时地，我们会遇到一些决定更换首席经纪商的介绍经纪商。在亚洲，我们刚刚在线上接入了几家虚拟银行。我们已经完成了我之前提到的大型全球银行的整合。我们有一家已经与我们整合并上线的 SEC 注册顾问。然后，在我们的管道中有很多公司处于不同阶段。其中一些仍在努力找出最佳的整合方式，而另一些正在忙于整合，第三组已经开始进行一些测试交易。
Thomas Peterffy 托马斯·彼得菲
Just for more clarity, if I may add. Many of these brokers open omnibus accounts. So it doesn't necessarily show up as a large number of new accounts because an omnibus broker basically gives us one account while he may have hundreds or thousands or tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands accounts on his end. But we obviously get all the trading volume.
仅为更加清晰，如果我可以补充的话。许多经纪人开设的是总账户。因此，这并不一定会显示为大量的新账户，因为总账经纪人基本上为我们提供一个账户，而他可能在他那边有数百个、数千个、数万个或数十万个账户。但我们显然获得所有交易量。
Daniel Fannon 丹尼尔·范农
Understood. And then just as a follow-up, another question on capital. You talked about excess capital. We know there's regulatory capital. Then there's what you want to maintain as a buffer to keep the fortress balance sheet. Can you talk about what is excess as we think about not only dividend and M&A in terms of what we -- is potentially for use on an inorganic or capital return?
明白了。然后作为跟进问题，关于资本的另一个问题。您谈到了过剩资本。我们知道有监管资本。然后是您希望保持作为保障坚实资产负债表的缓冲的资本。您能谈谈在考虑不仅是股息和并购方面，我们认为可以用于有机或资本回报的过剩资本是什么吗？
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
So I would say around $6 billion of the capital is the excess that is not necessary to run the business. So that gives you some idea of what the number is. Now are we trying to go out there and spend it fast like a drunken sailor? Of course not. But we are carefully looking at the opportunities that come our way. And to tell you the truth, it's -- we find it difficult. The rule of thumb is that more than 70% of the acquisitions out there do not deliver the promised value. We do not have a lot of experience in the M&A space, so we are extra diligent. And although we were very close to do two very large acquisitions, in the end, we were not able to agree on a price. So this trend can continue, but I am hopeful that we will be able to do an acquisition and speed up the organic growth of accounts.
因此，我会说大约 60 亿美元的资本是多余的，不是必要的用于经营业务。这样你就对数字有了一些概念。现在我们是不是要像醉酒的水手一样快速花掉它？当然不是。但我们正在仔细审视我们遇到的机会。说实话，这很困难。经验法则是，超过 70%的收购并没有实现承诺的价值。我们在并购领域没有太多经验，因此我们格外谨慎。尽管我们曾经非常接近完成两笔非常大的收购交易，但最终我们无法就价格达成一致。这种趋势可能会继续下去，但我希望我们能够完成一笔收购交易，加快账户的有机增长速度。
Operator 操作员
And our next question comes from Patrick Moley from Piper Sandler.
我们的下一个问题来自 Piper Sandler 的 Patrick Moley。
Patrick Moley 帕特里克·莫利
Thomas, I just caught your interview on CNBC before the call here. It sounded like you didn't think margin loans could really go much higher from here, it sounds like, I think you said historically, maybe the jump that we've seen recently might be an indication that balances are a little bit overextended. So just hoping you could maybe just provide some more color there, how we should think about margin loan growth trajectory in the short term and whether those comments are any sort of indication that -- of what you've seen in April.
托马斯，在我们通话之前，我刚在 CNBC 上看了你的采访。你似乎认为保证金贷款从现在开始不太可能再上升，听起来，我记得你说过在历史上，最近我们看到的增长可能表明余额有点过度。所以希望你能提供更多细节，我们应该如何看待短期内保证金贷款增长轨迹，以及这些评论是否表明你在四月看到的情况。
Thomas Peterffy 托马斯·彼得菲
Let me put it this way. I hope that they're not going much higher because I'm a nervous Nellie. When margin loans shoot up, that always is followed by a quick collapse in the market. That's my almost 50-year experience.
让我这样说吧。我希望它们不会再大幅上涨，因为我是一个紧张的人。当保证金贷款飙升时，市场往往会迅速崩盘。这是我近 50 年的经验。
Patrick Moley 帕特里克·莫利
Okay. All right. That's helpful. And then, I guess, just as a follow-up. You recently unveiled the IBKR Desktop offering. I was hoping you could talk just about what you think that platform offers and what it can mean for account growth going forward.
好的。好的。这很有帮助。然后，我想作为后续。您最近推出了 IBKR 桌面版。我希望您能谈谈这个平台提供了什么，以及对未来账户增长意味着什么。
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
Well, perhaps I can give you a little bit of a history first. We created the broker to attract and cater to professional traders-- highly sophisticated accounts. We have developed the desktop-- the original desktop, TWS, for them. We have been adding features to it very fast over the last 20-plus years. So we have a very mature platform that has all the capabilities a professional trader of any kind could wish for.
也许我可以先给你一点历史。我们创建了经纪人来吸引和迎合专业交易者——高度复杂的账户。我们为他们开发了桌面——最初的桌面，TWS。在过去 20 多年里，我们迅速为其添加了功能。因此，我们拥有一个非常成熟的平台，具备任何类型的专业交易者所需的所有功能。
Now we made that platform available to everybody because our systems are highly scalable. We are very happy to take on accounts of any size. Over time, we have learned that some of the clients find the platform overwhelming. So we have added a web platform. We have added two different types of mobile trader-- a sophisticated one and a less sophisticated one. But the flagship platform is still there, generates a lot of business, but it is getting somewhat older. It has been online for longer than a couple of decades. So we decided to build a brand new one, a brand new desktop, which is going to be -- which is simpler than the original one. It has a reduced functionality set. It does not cater to all sorts of professional traders, but the account holder that it has in mind is the active trader. So that is what that new desktop Trader Workstation is meant to be used by. It went online this first quarter. We continue to add functionality to it. We will continue to do so going forward, but we will try to remain disciplined so that we do not over-clutter it with features that are not frequently used.
现在我们将该平台提供给所有人，因为我们的系统具有高度可扩展性。我们非常乐意接受任何规模的账户。随着时间的推移，我们发现一些客户觉得该平台过于复杂。因此，我们增加了一个网络平台。我们增加了两种不同类型的移动交易员——一种复杂的和一种不太复杂的。但旗舰平台仍然存在，带来了大量业务，但它已经有些陈旧了。它上线时间已经超过二十年。因此，我们决定构建一个全新的平台，一个全新的桌面，它将比原来的更简单。它的功能集减少了。它不适用于各种专业交易员，但它所考虑的账户持有人是活跃交易员。这就是新桌面交易工作站的用途。它在本季度上线。我们将继续为其增加功能。我们将继续这样做，但我们将努力保持纪律，以免过度混杂一些不经常使用的功能。
The feedback that we're getting from our clients is very good. We are on very -- we talk to them often. We grade the platform in terms of usability-- how easy it is to find features on it, how easy it is to trade on it. So we look at these grades all the time and adjust as necessary. And we are getting questions already for the professional accounts and from i-brokers - when we are going to make the platform available to them, which I consider to be a very good sign because that was not originally the plan but there is already demand for it. So I'm so far very happy with how the platform is performing.
我们从客户那里得到的反馈非常好。我们经常与他们交流。我们根据可用性对平台进行评分——在平台上查找功能有多容易，进行交易有多容易。因此，我们一直关注这些评分，并根据需要进行调整。我们已经收到了专业账户和 i-经纪人的询问——他们想知道我们何时会为他们提供平台，我认为这是一个非常好的迹象，因为最初并没有计划这样做，但已经有需求了。因此，到目前为止，我对平台的表现非常满意。
Operator 操作员
And our next question comes from Chris Allen from Citi.
我们的下一个问题来自花旗银行的克里斯·艾伦。
Chris Allen 克里斯·艾伦
Maybe I wanted to touch on the hedge fund client base. You noted establishing a high-touch PB service. I'm just wondering, did that require additional hiring for that client segment? What kind of progress are you making in terms of kind of moving up some of the tables you talked about in the past? And any additional areas of growth to further penetrate that client segment?
也许我想谈谈对冲基金客户群。您提到建立高接触的 PB 服务。我只是想知道，这是否需要为该客户群段进行额外的招聘？在您过去谈到的提升某些表格方面取得了什么样的进展？还有哪些额外的增长领域可以进一步渗透到该客户群段？
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
So this is brand new. We have really just announced it towards the end of last week, and we have notified accounts, 30 or so hedge funds that we have on the platform. We have invited them into this new service-- high-touch prime brokerage service. The goal, obviously, is to attract hedge funds that are larger than, let's say, $100 million of equity, or to keep on our platform the ones that started small, but they have reached the assets level that would allow them to go to one of our larger competitors.
所以这是全新的。我们实际上是在上周末宣布的，并已通知了我们平台上的 30 多家对冲基金。我们邀请他们加入这项新服务——高端专属经纪服务。显然，我们的目标是吸引那些资产规模超过 1 亿美元的对冲基金，或者留住那些起步较小但已经达到资产规模可以转向我们更大竞争对手之一的基金。
So we have done -- we have had a lot of discussions with the hedge funds with some of the professionals at the prime brokerage space, and we have learned what the hedge funds -- the larger hedge funds expect of their prime broker. And the number one thing that they expect is the white glove or a high-touch service. So that is what this offering is. The eligible hedge fund will have a single point of contact and will receive elevated service from Interactive Brokers. As part of this service, we are establishing a 24x5 global outsourced trading desk for these clients. These clients will get access to subject matter experts from various supporting functional groups: compliance, risk, funds and banking, securities finance and others. So we believe that they will find what they usually expect from the large competing brokers. So this was the first step that we are taking here. And over time, we will see how well it's working.
所以我们已经做了——我们与对冲基金进行了许多讨论，与一些专业人士在主要经纪空间，我们了解了对冲基金——较大的对冲基金对他们的主要经纪人有什么期望。他们期望的第一件事是白手套服务或高度接触服务。这就是这个提供的内容。符合条件的对冲基金将有一个单一的联系点，并将从互动经纪人那里获得提升的服务。作为这项服务的一部分，我们为这些客户建立了一个全球外包交易台，每周 24 小时，5 天。这些客户将获得来自各种支持功能组的专家的支持：合规、风险、基金和银行、证券融资等。因此，我们相信他们将找到他们通常从大型竞争经纪人那里期望的东西。这是我们在这里采取的第一步。随着时间的推移，我们将看到它的运作情况如何。
Chris Allen 克里斯·艾伦
Understood. And then maybe one additional quick question. Last quarter, you mentioned looking at efficiency opportunities in areas such as surveillance and customer service. Wondering if you made any progress on those fronts? Any other areas you can wring out some efficiencies moving forward, which, I mean, obviously, given your margin, it's -- you're already incredibly efficient. So it's asking a lot a little bit, but just any color on that would be great.
明白了。然后也许还有一个快速的问题。上个季度，您提到在监控和客户服务等领域寻找效率机会。想知道在这些方面取得了什么进展？未来还有哪些领域可以提高效率，显然，考虑到您的利润率，您已经非常高效了。所以这有点要求很多，但只要有任何相关信息就好。
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
We are continuously working on our electronic surveillance. As a broker, it is our obligation to surveil the trading activities and the movement of cash. We built our systems in-house even though a lot of our competitors use third-party software. We looked at a few different third-party software packages that are available. We found them too expensive and not really suitable for us because our business is global, so that is why we decided a few years ago to build our own. And the system generates alerts, and the alerts are serviced by human operators, which deem the alert either false positive or true positive. And if the alert points to a problem, then they either file a report with the regulator or they act according to the script that we have given to them. We have a significant number of operators that use the system. And our goal is not to add more as the number of accounts increases, as the volumes increase and as the cash moves increase. So that is the goal. And now how we're going about it is continuously improving the platform, reducing the number of false positives, deploying some artificial intelligence techniques. So that is what we have been doing for the past year or so.
我们正在不断地改进我们的电子监控。作为经纪人，监控交易活动和现金流动是我们的义务。尽管很多竞争对手使用第三方软件，但我们自行构建了系统。我们研究了几种可用的第三方软件包。我们发现它们价格太高，并不适合我们，因为我们的业务是全球化的，这就是为什么几年前我们决定自行构建系统的原因。系统会生成警报，这些警报由人工操作员处理，判断警报是误报还是真报。如果警报指向问题，他们会向监管机构报告或按照我们给予的指示行动。我们有大量操作员使用该系统。我们的目标不是随着账户数量、交易量和现金流增加而增加操作员数量。这就是我们的目标。我们正在不断改进平台，减少误报数量，应用一些人工智能技术。 这就是我们过去一年左右一直在做的事情。
Similarly, on customer service, our goal is not to have to grow the employees that work for the customer service department in proportion with the number of new accounts that we add. Now how are we exactly accomplishing that is-- that we are making the service self-service. We are trying to reduce the number of phone calls our customer service department receives, the number of chats, the number of tickets by making it very easy or much easier for our clients to find self-help through the platform that we give them. And here, again, we are using various techniques. Lately, we have dabbled into generative AI, and we are seeing good results. But this is a process that will continue, that we will always be working on.
同样，在客户服务方面，我们的目标不是随着我们增加的新账户数量而相应增加客户服务部门的员工人数。我们如何确切地实现这一目标是——我们正在推行自助服务。我们试图通过让客户更容易或更轻松地在我们提供的平台上找到自助帮助，来减少客户服务部门接到的电话、聊天和工单数量。在这方面，我们再次使用各种技术。最近，我们开始涉足生成式人工智能，并且看到了良好的结果。但这是一个持续进行的过程，我们将始终致力于此。
Operator 操作员
And our next question comes from Kyle Voigt from KBW.
我们的下一个问题来自 KBW 的 Kyle Voigt。
Kyle Voigt 凯尔·福格
Milan, maybe just a follow-up on that prior question on efficiency. You noted harnessing AI potentially in the customer service side. I guess, any progress here in terms of are you rolling out new generative AI bots? Is that part of the -- and is that really just to help your customer service reps? Or is that directly going to be deployed to end users that are on the platform-- retail users on the platform?
或许可以就之前关于效率的问题再谈一下。您提到可能在客户服务方面利用人工智能。我想知道，在这方面是否取得了进展？您是否正在推出新的生成式人工智能机器人？这是否是为了帮助您的客户服务代表？还是直接部署到平台上的终端用户——平台上的零售用户？
And then on the revenue side, as it pertains to AI, is that being utilized by any of your clients at all in trading or deploying trading strategies? I'm just wondering if you think there could be a real revenue opportunity here as well.
然后在收入方面，就人工智能而言，您的任何客户是否在交易或部署交易策略中使用它？我只是想知道您是否认为在这方面也可能存在真正的收入机会。
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
The first question was about who uses the AI capabilities that we have developed for customer service-- it is both our customer service representatives as well as our clients. When they ask the question through our platform, we map the question that is in natural language into the most suitable set of documents that have the ability to answer that question. And then we apply some generative AI algorithms to the set of documents that we find, and we return an answer to the client. And something similar happens inside when the customer service representatives of Interactive Brokers use the system.
第一个问题是关于谁使用我们为客户服务开发的人工智能功能——既是我们的客户服务代表，也是我们的客户。当他们通过我们的平台提出问题时，我们将自然语言中的问题映射到最适合回答该问题的一组文件中。然后，我们对我们找到的文件集应用一些生成式人工智能算法，然后向客户返回答案。当交互经纪的客户服务代表使用系统时，类似的情况也会发生。
Now as far as the trading using the AI, we do not yet have anything available for our clients in terms of the platform utilizing the AI. But we have discussions in-house, and we have some, I believe, good ideas that we're going to be working on going forward.
就目前而言，关于使用人工智能进行交易，我们尚未为客户提供利用人工智能的平台。但我们内部正在讨论，并且我相信我们有一些不错的想法，将会继续努力实现。
Kyle Voigt 凯尔·福格
Understood. And then just -- just a follow-up on the expenses as well. You noted the headcount has slowed partially due to what you kind of just laid out. It's only up 2% or 3% year-on-year. It sounds like you're going to try to hold that roughly flattish or at least at a slower level looking forward. But when we think about compensation, it looks like that's up 10% in the first quarter. I think fixed expenses were up roughly 17% year-on-year. So I guess, given some of the new initiatives like this high-touch prime brokerage offering, should we expect this divergence in kind of fixed expense growth versus the headcount growth to persist at least over the next few quarters?
明白。然后只是——关于费用的跟进。您提到人数增长放缓部分是由于您刚刚阐述的原因。同比仅增长 2%或 3%。听起来您似乎打算将其保持在大致持平或至少在较慢水平上看待未来。但是当我们考虑到薪酬时，似乎第一季度增长了 10%。我认为固定费用同比增长了大约 17%。所以我想，鉴于一些新的倡议，比如这种高接触度的首席经纪服务，我们是否应该预期在未来几个季度内固定费用增长与人数增长之间的这种分歧会持续下去？
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
So the headcount growth is easier to keep in check. In terms of compensation, we have to deal with a couple of different factors. One of them is inflation. Their lives are getting more expensive, and we have to pay our employees more. And also the talent, the really good talent is getting more expensive. There are lots of tech and financial companies out there fighting for good talent, and we need to make sure that we keep the employees with Interactive Brokers, and we are able to attract the new ones. And the recent historical trend has been such that the prices of the human resources have been going up.
因此，人数增长更容易控制。在薪酬方面，我们必须处理几个不同的因素。其中之一是通货膨胀。他们的生活变得更昂贵，我们必须支付更多薪酬给我们的员工。而且人才，真正优秀的人才变得更昂贵。有许多科技和金融公司在争夺优秀人才，我们需要确保留住与互动经纪人合作的员工，并且能够吸引新员工。最近的历史趋势表明，人力资源的价格一直在上涨。
Operator 操作员
[Operator Instructions] And our next question comes from Macrae Sykes from GAMCO.
[操作员指示]我们下一个问题来自 GAMCO 的 Macrae Sykes。
Macrae Sykes 麦克雷·赛克斯
I just -- it goes without saying, I think Rich Repetto was a great addition to the Board. I've long admired his work in the industry.
我认为，毋庸置疑，我认为 Rich Repetto 是董事会的一个很好的补充。我长期以来一直钦佩他在这个行业的工作。
My question is around the impact of zero-day options on the marketplace. I can understand they're really good for liquidity and choice. But is there a potential to kind of burn out investors, given the obvious churn?
我的问题是关于零日期权对市场的影响。我可以理解它们对流动性和选择非常有利。但考虑到明显的翻转，是否存在可能会使投资者疲惫不堪的潜在风险？
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
Well, every great tool can be misused and requires some amount of responsibility, if you will. The same can be said about one-day options. Now what Thomas usually says, when facing a question about zero-day options, is that we have always had them. When you think back when only the monthly options were tradable, on the expiration date, those options were zero-day options. Then the exchanges started listing weekly options, and then we had this event of an option becoming a zero-day option more frequently. And now we have them every day. So it is not something that came out of nowhere. It's just -- there is a lot more of it available now.
嗯，每个伟大的工具都可能被滥用，并需要一定程度的责任，如果你愿意的话。关于一日期权也可以这样说。现在，当面对零日期权的问题时，托马斯通常会说，我们一直都有它们。当你回想起只有月度期权可以交易时，在到期日，那些期权就是零日期权。然后交易所开始列出周度期权，然后我们经常看到期权成为零日期权的情况。现在我们每天都有这样的期权。所以这并不是突然出现的事情。只是--现在有更多这样的期权可供选择。
These options -- CBOE has recently issued a document justifying their existence and reiterating their power and their use. And they have referred to the ability to hedge quickly, the ability to get into a position that is sensitive to a market move very quickly. So it is a good powerful tool. But as I have started my paragraph, my answer, it can be misused.
这些期权--芝加哥期权交易所最近发布了一份文件，证明它们的存在，并重申它们的权力和用途。他们提到了快速对冲的能力，迅速进入对市场变动敏感的头寸的能力。因此，这是一个强大的工具。但正如我在开头所说，我的答案是，它可能被滥用。
Macrae Sykes 麦克雷·赛克斯
And on the prime brokerage revenue, understand the balances, trading. Are there any ancillary kind of fee revenues that would go with this high-touch service? Or is it just bundled in terms of using the platform?
关于一级经纪收入，了解余额，交易。是否有任何附加费用收入与这种高度互动的服务相匹配？还是仅仅捆绑在使用平台方面？
Milan Galik 米兰·加利克
This is mostly about convenience, especially when you look at the global outsourced trading desk. We found that some hedge funds would like to take advantage of our ability to provide global products to them. They do not want to be up and trading at their desk 24 hours a day, and they would welcome an opportunity to give us an order during the day -- during the American day, to work an order during Asian hours in Asian markets. That is what we're trying to outsource.
这主要是关于便利性，特别是当您看全球外包交易台时。我们发现一些对冲基金希望利用我们提供全球产品的能力。他们不想每天 24 小时都待在交易台上交易，他们愿意在白天给我们下单的机会——在美国白天期间，在亚洲市场的亚洲时间内处理订单。这就是我们试图外包的内容。
So obviously, we're going to charge a little more for that type of trading than the fully electronic self-trading, but it really is about the convenience. It is about attracting larger funds and keeping around the ones that started small but grew big.
显然，我们对这种交易收取的费用会比完全电子自助交易高一点，但这确实是为了方便。这是为了吸引更多的资金，并留住那些起初规模较小但后来发展壮大的资金。
Operator
And our next question comes from Brennan Hawken from UBS.
Brennan Hawken
My questions have been asked.
Operator
And our follow-up question comes from Craig Siegenthaler from Bank of America.
Craig Siegenthaler
So Kyle asked a similar question, but let me ask it in a different way. On AI, do you think artificial intelligence could be a driver of the next leg of volume growth and potentially be a commission accelerator? And I'm curious how your clients are using AI to trade automatically today.
Milan Galik
Can it act as an accelerator? It absolutely can in the long run. Today, for a typical investor, it takes a while to decide what kind of a trade they want to do. There is usually some research involved, either fundamental or some technical analysis. Imagine in the future, you will have an AI engine available to you that is going to be able to quickly answer your questions, quickly do analysis for you, even recommend opportunities that you normally don’t look at. So I believe that is going to accelerate the trading in the future.
And as to your other question, how are our traders-- our trading clients using the AI today? Maybe they have their own tools. But at the moment, we are not offering any AI-based trading tools to them. But in the future, we're planning to.
Craig Siegenthaler
Great. And I actually just have one more follow-up on 0DTE SPX. This became a really big product last year. I'm just wondering if you can talk about which of your client segments, you're seeing the highest penetration rate of 0DTE?
Milan Galik
I have to tell you the truth, we do not look at it from the point of view of which client segment trades them the most for a very simple reason. It does not make a lot of difference to us. We charge our public transparent commission to all segments the same way. So for that reason, we are not really focusing on that.
But I would tell you that just from reading newspapers out there, the zero-dated options, they became a phenomenon that is participated on by the retail clients. So I would say it's both the professionals and the retail.
Operator
And a follow-up is Kyle Voigt from KBW.
Kyle Voigt
Just a modeling follow-up for Paul. When we look on an adjusted basis, the other income line of $31 million came in higher than expected. Was that increase, in that line specifically, mostly driven by better market-making activity?
And then in the footnotes, I also believe you disclosed there was roughly $9 million of interest-like income that flowed through that line specifically. That is included in your NII walk, but it ends up in an other income bucket on the income statement. Is that just interest income on capital that's deployed for the market-making business? Or is that being generated by something else?
Paul Brody
Right. So the second question first. Yes, it's a shift. Sometimes we invest our house capital in instruments that don't generate interest from a GAAP accounting standpoint, and they end up being reported in other income. So yes, to that point.
And also, yes to trading activities produced a better result this year than certainly in last year's quarter and somewhat better than in the fourth quarter as well. So we're not unhappy with our very small remaining market-making operations.
Kyle Voigt
And is that operation mostly focused in the U.S. or internationally? Can you just remind us what that has kind of exposure to for modeling?
Paul Brody
Yes. We operate outside the US.
Operator
And I am showing no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Nancy Stuebe for closing remarks.
Nancy Stuebe
Thank you, everyone, for participating today. As a reminder, this call will be available for replay on our website, and we will also be posting a clean version of our transcript on the site tomorrow. Thank you again, and we will talk to you next quarter end.
Operator
Thank you. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.
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