Interactive Brokers is the most complete international broker available to Romanian investors. It provides access to a very large number of markets and instruments — stocks, ETFs, options, futures, bonds and currencies — with pricing that gets cheaper the more you trade.
Where it wins
- Global market access, far beyond what any local broker offers
- Around 13,000 ETFs available to Romanian clients
- $0 minimum deposit for cash accounts
- Fractional shares and recurring investments
- No traditional inactivity fee
Where the cost actually lands
Under tiered pricing, European stock orders cost 0.05% of trade value with a €1.25 minimum per order. That minimum is the number that decides whether IBKR is cheap for you:
- €100 order → €1.25 is 1.25%
- €1,000 order → 0.125%
- €5,000 order → 0.025%
If you invest €500 a month, you pay the €1.25 minimum every month — €15 a year, or 0.25% of contributions. That is cheap in absolute terms, but not cheaper than a broker charging nothing at all on the same order.
The platform is also genuinely more complex than Trading 212 or XTB. That is the price of the capability.
The tax catch
Interactive Brokers Ireland is not a Romanian tax-resident intermediary. Gains you realise through it fall under the 16% self-declared regime for 2026, and calculating and reporting them is your responsibility.
For a long-term holder, that is the single biggest line in the comparison. On a €10,000 gain, 16% is €1,600 against €300 under the 3% withholding regime — a difference of €1,300 that no commission structure on this page can offset. Verify your own situation with the broker and a tax professional; this is not tax advice.
The referral offer
IBKR runs one of the clearest referral programs available to Romanian residents: $1 of IBKR stock for every $300 deposited, capped at $1,000.
| Deposit | Potential reward |
|---|---|
| $300 | $1 |
| $3,000 | ~$10 |
| $30,000 | ~$100 |
| $300,000+ | up to $1,000 |
The $1,000 headline requires a $300,000 deposit, so treat it as a ceiling rather than an expectation. The program excludes residents of Japan, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Poland, mainland China and Israel — Romania is not on that list. The referrer must also meet IBKR's eligibility conditions.
Who it suits
Investors who want global market access, trade in sizes where the €1.25 minimum is negligible, and are comfortable handling their own Romanian tax reporting.