Lending Works IFISA ‘expected’ to remain open during ISA season

Lending Works is hoping to keep its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) open for new customers but has warned this may change.

The peer-to-peer lender resumed new lending at the start of January 2021 with tightened creditworthiness and affordability criteria after pausing new accounts and loans for much of 2020.

Nick Harding (pictured), founder of the P2P consumer lender, said the platform expects its IFISA to remain open to everybody, subject to liquidity.

“At this time, we do expect our IFISA to be open for new and existing customers throughout the 2021 ISA season,” Harding told Peer2Peer Finance News.

“That said, given the Covid-19 pandemic, Lending Works is currently operating with restricted credit acceptance, hence we are continuing to monitor liquidity closely which could cause this decision to be changed.”

Read more: Lending Works moves to negative interest rates

He said existing users would be prioritised for IFISA applications if the platform had to restrict sign-ups to the tax wrapper.

It comes after Zopa said it was closed to new IFISAs this ISA season.

Funding Circle will also be missing as it has paused retail P2P lending while it focuses on coronavirus business interruption loans.

Additionally, RateSetter, which previously had one of the largest IFISAs, has exited the P2P market after selling its remaining portfolio to Metro Bank.