Negative Cash Balances

Negative cash balances can occur when there is not enough cash available in your account to cover a recent transaction or activity.

Maintaining a negative cash balance can result in interest being charged, or securities being sold from your account to cover the negative balance. It’s always best to offset the balance as soon as possible.

What Can Cause a Negative Balance?

Negative cash balances could be caused by one of the following:

• You purchased a security without sufficient cash in the settlement currency and did not complete a foreign exchange conversion
• You purchased a security without sufficient total cash in your account to cover the purchase
• There was an account activity, such as a fee payment, interest charge, or dividend reinvestment, and your account did not have sufficient cash to cover it.

 How Can a Negative Balance Be Cleared?

 There are three main ways to clear negative cash balance from your account:

1. Foreign Exchange – you can request a foreign exchange to offset the negative balance
2. Cash Transfer – you can transfer cash into your account to cover the negative balance
3. Sell Securities – you can sell securities to offset the negative balance