I-bank’s advertised business model is client facilitation. I-banks may hold an inventory of popular bccy, and may also accept service fee payment in bccy. In such a scenario, the ibank would trade bccy for its own position, even though they claim to trade bccy only for hedging.

In other words, ibanks are dealers rather than pure-play brokers of bccy.

Prop trading is a secret business model of i-banks, and may trade bccy actively.