What is the most common IB commission model?

Per-lot — a fixed amount per lot traded — because it is simple for partners to understand and predict. Percentage-of-spread and revenue-share models are common with larger partners.

How many levels should a partner structure have?

It depends on your economics. Deeper structures attract network-building partners but dilute what each level earns. Model it against your actual revenue per lot before committing.

How Brokers Manage IB Commissions: Structures & Systems

How Brokers Manage IB Commissions

Brokers manage IB commissions by attributing each client to the partner who introduced them, applying a rate rule — per-lot, percentage of spread or revenue share — to that client's trading activity, and distributing the result across the partner hierarchy. The critical requirements are durable attribution, a rules engine that handles multiple levels, and partner-facing reporting.

7 min read · Updated 24 September 2026

Partner networks are how most brokerages grow, and commission is how partner networks are kept. It is also where brokerages most reliably lose money and lose partners, usually for the same reason: the numbers are produced by hand and nobody fully trusts them.

The three components

Attribution

Which partner introduced this client, and who sits above that partner. This has to be durable — it must survive the client opening additional accounts, changing details, or being handled by a different staff member. Attribution that can be lost or overwritten is the root cause of most commission disputes.

The rate rule

What the partner earns, and on what basis. The common models:

Model	Basis	Typical use
Per-lot	Fixed amount per lot traded	Most common; simple for partners to understand
Percentage of spread	Share of the spread revenue generated	Aligns partner and broker economics
Revenue share	Percentage of net revenue from the client	Larger partners, longer-term relationships
Hybrid	Combination, often per-lot plus a share	Used to balance predictability and upside

Rates frequently vary by instrument. A partner earning the same per-lot rate on a major currency pair and on gold is usually a partner earning an economically incoherent rate on at least one of them.

Distribution across levels

In multi-level structures, a sub-partner earns on their own clients and the partner above them earns on the sub-partner's activity. The engine has to walk the hierarchy, apply the rate configured at each level, and record each commission event against the trading activity that generated it.

Why spreadsheets fail

They are produced once a month by one person, so errors are found late and by partners.
They cannot be shown to partners in real time, so partners cannot self-serve.
They do not record which trade generated which commission, so disputes cannot be resolved.
They break when the structure changes mid-period.
They double-count when the same event is processed twice — a genuinely common failure.

What good looks like

1Attribution is set at registration and cannot be silently lost.
2Rates are configurable per level, per partner and per symbol.
3Commission events reference the specific trading activity that produced them.
4The same event cannot be credited twice.
5Partners have their own portal showing clients, volume and earnings.
6Payouts are recorded separately from accruals, so you can see what is owed versus paid.

See the IB structure in the demo

Partner hierarchy, volume and earnings on sample data.

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