What Is the Broker Call Rate? How It Sets Margin Loan Rates
The broker call rate is what banks charge brokers on loans that fund customers' margin accounts. It was 5.50% in the Aug. 31 Journal table we could open.
Why it matters
- The broker call rate, also called call money, is the rate banks charge brokers on short-term loans the brokers use to fund their customers' margin accounts.
- It is published in The Wall Street Journal's money rates table. The latest copy we could open, for Monday, Aug. 31, showed call money at 5.50%, with the prime rate at 6.75%.
- Brokers that use it add a spread by loan size. One clearing firm's schedule runs from the call rate plus 6.25% on balances under $15,000 to plus 3.75% at $500,000 and up.
Explainer: background on how this part of the market works.
The broker call rate, often listed as "call money," is the interest rate banks charge brokers on short-term loans that fund their customers' margin accounts. It is a base rate, not what investors pay: a broker that uses it adds its own spread. The latest Wall Street Journal money rates table we could open, for Monday, Aug. 31, 2026, put call money at 5.50%.
This is an explainer, not advice. Nothing here is a quote or an offer.
What is the broker call rate?
It is the cost of money a broker borrows to lend on to customers. When an investor buys securities on margin, the broker lends part of the price. The broker can fund that lending with bank loans, and the call rate is what those loans cost. The loans are "call" loans because the bank can demand repayment on short notice.
Where is the broker call rate published?
In The Wall Street Journal's money rates table, which Dow Jones also sends out daily as "New York Late Money Rates from The Wall Street Journal." Call money appears there under "other short-term rates," next to commercial paper and SOFR. The table lists the Federal Reserve, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, DTCC, FactSet and Tullett Prebon as its sources.
The Federal Reserve's H.15 release, the usual home of U.S. benchmark rates, lists the prime rate and fed funds but has no call money series.
We could not open the Journal's own page this run. The newest full table we could read was a Dow Jones copy for Aug. 31. The prime rate has changed since then, so check the Journal's money rates page for today's call rate.
How does the broker call rate relate to prime and fed funds?
In the Journal tables we opened, call money sat 1.25 points below prime. Prime sat 3 points above the top of the Fed's target range.
| Journal table | Call money | Prime rate | Fed funds target |
|---|---|---|---|
| Friday, Sept. 19, 2025 | 6.00% | 7.25% | 4.00%-4.25% |
| Monday, Aug. 31, 2026 | 5.50% | 6.75% | 3.50%-3.75% |
Those gaps come from two tables, not a published rule. On Sept. 16, Dow Jones said the Journal's prime rate would rise to 7.00% on Thursday, Sept. 17, after the Fed raised its target range to 3.75% to 4%. The Fed held that range on Wednesday, Oct. 28, in a 10-2 vote. The Fed's H.15 release shows prime at 7.00% and the effective fed funds rate at 3.88% on Oct. 29. Between the two tables, the Fed's range, prime and call money all fell by the same amount: 0.5 point.
How do brokers set margin rates from the call rate?
A broker that uses the call rate adds a spread that shrinks as the loan grows. A truth-in-lending letter from Apex Clearing, a clearing firm, revised in June 2018 and posted by a broker it serves, sets these tiers:
| Average debit balance | Margin rate |
|---|---|
| Below $15,000 | Call rate + 6.25% |
| $15,000 to $49,999 | Call rate + 5.75% |
| $50,000 to $99,999 | Call rate + 5.25% |
| $100,000 to $249,999 | Call rate + 4.75% |
| $250,000 to $499,999 | Call rate + 4.25% |
| $500,000 and above | Call rate + 3.75% |
The letter says rates can change "without notice in accordance with any changes in the broker call loan rate as published in the Wall Street Journal." Interest is figured daily on the debit balance, using 1/360 of the annual rate. Hypothetical: at a 5.50% call rate, the smallest tier would pay 11.75% and the largest 9.25%. (Illustrative figures from a 2018 schedule.)
Not every broker uses the call rate. Wells Fargo Clearing Services prices margin "above, at, or below the WSJ Prime Rate." Fidelity posts its own base margin rate, 10.825% since Sept. 18, 2026, with tiers from 1.25 points above it to 0.5 points below. Its rates page does not say how the base is set.
Whatever the base, SEC Rule 10b-16 requires brokers to tell margin customers the rates that can be charged, how interest is computed and when rates can change, with statements at least quarterly.
How is the call rate different from prime and SOFR?
They price different borrowers. The call rate prices bank loans to brokers backed by securities. Prime, the Fed says, "is one of several base rates used by banks to price short-term business loans." SOFR, the New York Fed says, measures "the cost of borrowing cash overnight collateralized by Treasury securities." It was 3.95% for Friday, Oct. 30.
Private and business-purpose lending is priced off prime and SOFR, not the call rate. Bank lines to lenders are commonly set at a spread over SOFR or prime, as our warehouse line of credit guide explains. For current benchmarks and the rates public hard money lenders disclose, see hard money and private lending rates today and our rates and data page.
Sources
- Dow Jones, New York Late Money Rates from The Wall Street Journal, table for Aug. 31, 2026 (republished by Bitget News)
- Dow Jones, New York Late Money Rates from The Wall Street Journal, table for Sept. 19, 2025 (republished by Tiger Brokers)
- Dow Jones, Subscribers: New York Late Money Rates from The Wall Street Journal, prime rate notice, Sept. 16, 2026 (republished by Bitget News)
- The Wall Street Journal, Money Rates (not opened this run; listed for readers checking the current figure)
- Federal Reserve, Selected Interest Rates (H.15), release of Oct. 30, 2026
- Federal Reserve, FOMC statement, Oct. 28, 2026
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Secured Overnight Financing Rate and SOFR data
- Apex Clearing Corp., Truth in Lending Letter (revised June 2018)
- Wells Fargo Clearing Services, Margin Disclosure Statement
- Fidelity Investments, Margin rates
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Rule 10b-16, via Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute
- The spread comparisons and the margin-rate hypothetical are calculations by The Lender Market.
