🔵 IEX Competitive Intel
IEX is adding a new eighth tier to its displayed liquidity rebate program, paying $0.0023/share to members that add at least 40 million shares of displayed ADV in the prior month — its highest rebate yet — while simultaneously raising the take fee for displayed liquidity from $0.0022 to $0.0024/share for active members, and increasing the sub-$1 take fee from 0.15% to 0.20% of trade value. The goal is to attract more high-volume market makers to post displayed quotes on IEX by offering a more competitive rebate, funded in part by higher take fees. As an immediately effective fee filing, this is already live for operative purposes on March 1, 2026 — no SEC approval is needed, though the SEC retains the right to suspend it within 60 days. Members posting large displayed volumes will earn slightly more, while active takers of displayed liquidity will pay modestly more.
IEX RELEVANT This is IEX's own fee filing, so it is directly relevant to IEX's competitive strategy. By introducing a higher rebate tier for very high-volume displayed liquidity providers and partially offsetting it with a take fee increase, IEX is leaning more into a maker-taker incentive structure to attract market makers and posted displayed flow. This is strategically notable because IEX has historically differentiated itself from competitors by not engaging in aggressive rebate competition and by protecting displayed liquidity providers via its speed bump. Expanding the rebate ladder to $0.0023/share — closer to rates at Nasdaq or Cboe BZX — signals IEX is willing to compete more directly on price to grow displayed volume, which could strengthen its market share in displayed trading but also moves it incrementally closer to the rebate-driven model it has traditionally criticized. The take fee increase may slightly reduce the attractiveness of IEX for aggressive takers, which could affect order routing decisions at broker-dealers.