Abundance receives £10m boost from IFISA
ABUNDANCE has attracted almost £10m of investment into its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA), the peer-to-peer lending platform’s managing director has revealed.
Speaking to Peer-to-Peer Finance News, Bruce Davis (pictured) said 1,600 customers have signed up to Abundance’s tax-free wrapper since its launch last April.
The platform – which specialises in ethical investments – was one of the first to launch the IFISA, having already gained the relevant regulatory approvals by April 2016.
Investors were initially only able to hold their IFISA money as cash, earning two per cent interest, until crowdfunded debt securities were allowed in the wrapper last November.
Davis said £6.5m has now been invested and £3m is being held in a new cash holding account launched last month, which pays two per cent interest, in anticipation of new projects coming onto the platform.
“The experience of individual platforms suggests there is huge demand for this product,” he said.
“Investors are placing on average £10,000 in our IFISAs; that is quite a big jump as previously we had an average investment of £7,000.
“The tax incentive seems to increase the average amount [invested] by about 30 per cent.”
Abundance specialises in backing ethical projects and Davis said more will be added in the next two to three weeks.
Crowdstacker last month revealed it was attracting £7,000 on average in its IFISA, which is just above the average subscription of £6,338 across cash and stocks and shares ISAs in the 2015-16 tax year.
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