Rapid take-up of Assetz ISA

More than 2,000 investors have registered for an Assetz Capital Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) to be set up since its launch in December, surpassing the 2,000 accounts opened across the entire peer-to-peer industry in the 2016/17 tax year.

Over £10 million has been invested in those Assetz Capital ISAs already, with a significant increase expected once the Manual Lending Account is included in the ISA wrapper before the end of Q1 2018.

With HMRC reporting that the amount invested in cash ISAs had fallen from £58.7bn in 2015/16 to £39.2bn in 2016/17, Assetz Capital CEO Stuart Law believes consumers are starting to vote with their feet when it comes to finding competitive rates of return, with IFISAs set to benefit.

Stuart said: “We are very encouraged by the initial reaction to our ISA. We have a range of automated accounts available within the ISA, with the Manual Lending Account set to follow soon, so I expect we’ll continue to see a strong take-up throughout 2018.

“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.”