Orca opens waiting list ahead of 2019 IFISA launch
ORCA has opened a waiting list for investors interested in its self-select portfolio and Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA), with plans to launch both products in the first quarter of 2019.
The peer-to-peer lending analysis and investment platform, which first revealed its plans to launch a tax wrapper to Peer2Peer Finance News in October, said the Orca ISA will allow investors to hold multiple P2P loans from different providers in one tax wrapper.
It will offer interest of up to 6.5 per cent.
Read more: Orca accepted into regulatory sandbox scheme
“The Orca ISA will be a first of its kind in the market where investors can build their own portfolio and hold it in an ISA,” Jordan Stodart, head of business development at Orca, said.
“Current ISA rules stipulate that people can divide their tax-year ISA allowance of £20,000 between different ISAs, but they may only subscribe current tax-year subscriptions to a single IFISA each year.
“This means it is very difficult to build a diversified P2P portfolio which is wrapped in an ISA. Investors typically hold one P2P investment within an IFISA, while the remaining P2P investments are held in taxable general investment accounts.
“With the Orca ISA, investors can hold multiple P2P providers in a single IFISA.”
Read more: Orca launches P2P investment platform
Orca is also planning to launch a self-select portfolio builder, meaning that investors will be able to choose whether to auto-invest their funds across Orca’s model portfolio or choose their own investments.
This is an interesting move at a time when a number of P2P lenders that have stepped back from manual lending. All of the ‘big three’ platforms purely offer auto-invest functions, since Funding Circle scrapping its manual lending option in September 2017.