In the beginning, the ThinCats IFISA was scheduled to go live by the end of 2017. In December, that launch date was pushed back until January 2018 due to “longer than expected build times” on the administration system. Today, the lender has announced in a private comminqué to investors that its IFISA will not be going live before the end of the current tax year.
Despite all of peer-to-peer’s “Big Three” having already launched their offerings, as well as a large number of others in the online lending space, ThinCats has now informed its investors that they can expect to receive access to the tax wrapper in the new tax year, starting on April 6th.
The platform has said that pushing the launch back will make it easier to manage the flow of new ISA cash, without the added pressure of its investors trying to make it in before their £20,000 tax-free allowance expires in April.
The statement continued: “ThinCats is currently enjoying good levels of liquidity from both retail and institutional investors. Given how close we are to the end of the current tax year, and the high levels of interest from retail clients who have pre-registered with us for the ThinCats ISA, it is likely that a launch would attract significant amounts of new cash in a very short period of time. Liquidity is already buoyant and so this would make it more challenging for all investors to access lending opportunities.”
“It is clearly disappointing for both you and us that you will not be able to use the 2017/18 ISA allowance with ThinCats. However, we hope that you agree that this course of action is fairer to all investors and look forward to inviting you to opening your ThinCats ISA with your 2018/19 allowance in the next few weeks.”
Meanwhile fellow peer-to-peer lender RateSetter opened up its IFISA to new investors yesterday, after fielding a successful initial launch limited to existing investors last month. Zopa did the same in January, opening up its whole platform to new investors for the first time since early 2017.
Find out more about the Innovative Finance ISA with our first IFISA Special Report.
