Irish P2P lender Linked Finance partners with pension providers
IRISH peer-to-peer lender Linked Finance has entered the pensions market.
The business lending platform, which offers investors rates of six to 17.5 per cent a year, has partnered with five pension trustee services to allow lenders to hold P2P loans in their retirement savings.
“Now, with our new Linked Finance pension accounts, you can make lending to Irish SMEs part of your planning for retirement,” the platform said.
“These accounts have been developed with some of Ireland’s leading pension trustee companies so that they meet the typical requirements associated with some of the most common self-managed pension products on the Irish market.”
Read more: OFF3R launches SIPPS portal
A minimum first transfer of €20,000 (£18,322) is required to set up the accounts, with a set-up fee of €500 deducted from the first deposit. Further investments must be worth a minimum of €500.
Pensions are still a growing market in the P2P space, both in the UK and Ireland, but loans aren’t always eligible.
While P2P loans are technically allowed in self invested personal pensions (SIPPs), connected parties rules stipulate that there must be no connection between the lender and borrower.
This provides a challenge for SIPP providers if a P2P loan is allocated to a large number of borrowers.
Crowdstacker and Folk2Folk have said they plan to offer SIPP-friendly products of their own.
Read more: TISA lobbies for P2P inclusion in SIPPs amid advisor outreach