Announced today, bond platform Downing Crowd has launched a limited time offer of 2 per cent p/a on all cash held in its Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) accounts until 30th June 2018.
Available to both new and existing investors, the move is designed to take some of the rush out of ISA season as clients seek to fill their £20,000 tax-free allowance before the new tax year on 5 April.
Once investors have funded their Downing Crowd IFISA account with cash, they then have three months to choose their bonds before the 2 per cent runs out in June. Since the IFISA launched in November 2016, Downing Crowd has said that more than 41 per cent of its bond investors have opened a tax wrapper on the platform.
Downing Crowd itself launched in March 2016, and has so far raised over £51m on behalf of UK small businesses, earning investors on the platform over £1.4m of interest with 0 per cent bad debt to date.
Speaking at the AltFi IFISA seminar earlier this year, Downing Crowd partner and head of crowdfunding Julia Groves said that the industry needs to “do better to be as transparent as possible” in what it can offer to investors, and about the IFISA process.
The AltFi IFISA report showed that on average, 50 per cent of all new money coming onto alternative finance platforms is through ISA products.
