Lending Works gets £9m boost from IFISA activity

Peer-to-peer platform Lending Works has attracted almost £9m into its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) in its first three months.

The consumer loans provider has recorded £8.8m of subscriptions into its IFISA since unveiling the product in February, with 815 investors lending £10,769 on average.

Nick Harding (pictured), founding chief executive of Lending Works, said 62 per cent of IFISA funds came from new subscriptions, while the remainder was transferred in from other ISAs, including cash ISAs, stocks and shares ISAs and even some from other IFISAs.

Read more: Lending Works hits £50m funding mark

The data also showed that almost a quarter of IFISA funds invested came from those aged 65 and over while men accounted for 69 per cent of total IFISA investment.

“It has been very encouraging to see lenders choosing to use Lending Works over the myriad of other investments available to them this ISA season,” Harding said.

“Take-up has been stronger than expected, particularly given that we have not even started advertising the product to new customers yet.

“Many of our lenders are vastly experienced, savvy investors, and to have them voting so emphatically with their feet in favour of the Lending Works ISA tells us that a very bright future lies ahead.”

He predicted that the IFISA would help the platform generate more than £100m each year to grow the business.

The platform, which allows investors to chose between a three per cent and a five per cent return rate on loans of equal duration, had to increase its IFISA inflow cap to £5m in February after attracting about £1.5m of funds within the first 24 hours of the launch of its tax-free wrapper.