BondMason launches P2P SIPP product

“P2P lending is an increasingly attractive asset-class,” says BondMason’s chief executive

BondMason has launched a self-invested personal pension (SIPP) product. The service aims to offer investors a flexible and tax-efficient way to save for retirement.

The new retirement product, which selects loans across P2P lending platforms, will grant UK savers exposure to higher-return assets than traditional pension savings products. Starting from a minimum investment of £5,000.

It will be offered through a number of SIPP administrators who are looking to diversify pension investments for their clients.

The service also aims to allow SIPP administrators to easily and compliantly grant their clients access to returns from P2P Lending. According to BondMason, SIPP administrators had previously been wary of recommending P2P Lending to their clients because of the “difficult and costly practicalities involved in making sure clients invest according to regulation.”

Having said that, this is not the first P2P SIPP to have been launched. Secured lender ThinCats launched its SIPP in the summer of 2014 and UK Bond Network launched a SIPP-wrapped bond offering in early 2015. 

“P2P lending is an increasingly attractive asset-class,” said the firm’s chief executive Stephen Findlay. “However, SIPP administrators are rightly concerned with the practical difficulties of monitoring the activities of clients looking to invest in this sector, as well as potentially needing to set aside additional regulatory capital."

“We’ve launched this SIPP product because we recognise the need to make P2P Lending as straightforward as possible and because it fits with what our clients want and what SIPP administrators need." 

BondMason says it has so far offered returns of about eight per cent per year, in contrast with the lower-yielding stocks and bonds traditionally associated with SIPP investments.

Findlay added: “For this SIPP offering, we’ve worked with pension administrators to create a product which benefits from our due diligence process and the selection of only the best loans from the best P2P platforms. We are meeting a demand in the marketplace which we expect to see grow and develop more over the coming months and years.”