Assetz Capital reports high level take up of IFISA

Since launching in December, the ISA product has wiped the floor with previous numbers for the industry.

More than 2,000 investors have registered for an Innovative Finance ISA since the wrapper’s launch in December, reports peer-to-peer lender Assetz Capital. These latest figures surpass the previous total of 2,000 accounts opened across the entire P2P industry in the 2016/17 tax year.

The platform has said that over £10m has been invested into its ISA products already, with another significant increase to be expected once its Manual Lending Account is included in the wrapper before the end of Q1 2018.

“We are very encouraged by the initial reaction to our ISA,” said Assetz CEO Stuart Law.

“The landscape is changing and people are looking for places where their money will work hard for them, and that is increasingly not in cash ISAs. This is a watershed year for the IFISA.

“It’s up to the whole industry to deliver on this opportunity and help create a large-scale alternative way to invest in ISAs, just as the government originally intended when it created them.”

Speaking at AltFi’s dedicated IFISA seminar in January, Assetz Capital’s Martin Heelam stated that he predominantly expects most Cash ISAs to migrate over to the IFISA as the firm continues into 2018.

Research commissioned as part of AltFi’s own IFISA report suggests that public ignorance is going to be the most likely obstacle for widespread take up of the tax wrapper, with only 23 percent of those surveyed aware of its existence. However of those in the know, 1 in 6 have already put money into one.