Don't invest unless you're prepared to lose money. This is a high-risk investment. You may not be able to access your money easily and are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong. Take 2 minutes to learn more.

The Assetz Capital platform is no longer open to investment from individual investors. No new investments into peer-to-peer loans are possible and, as a result, no new funds should be deposited. The existing loan book relating to the Retail platform is now in run-off and this will, over time, deliver the return of capital to investors. Full information can be found here . Existing Retail lenders can still log in, view information regarding their account and loan holdings and operate their account in accordance with the information regarding the run-off provided on the link above. Please see this important message regarding the currency of the information on the pages on this website.

What do NISAs Mean for P2P Investors?

Unfortunately though, it’s not quite that simple. In this guide, we will look at how P2P NISAs work and what the future holds for them.

What is an ISA?

Each year, the Government allows people to invest a certain amount without paying tax on the interest they earn.

By using an ISA you can invest in:

  • Savings accounts, which pay a fixed amount of interest
  • Stocks, shares or funds, which offer returns that may fluctuate wildly

What is a NISA?

In March, Osborne made some changes to the rules regarding an ISA, including increasing the allowance from £11,520 to £15,000. As a result, it became the ‘new ISA’, or, more commonly, the NISA.

There were a few other changes to the way the NISA works, but for our purposes the important update is the inclusion of P2P lending.

How Does it Work?

In an ideal world, we’d have been up and running right away. However, NISAs are complicated and not just anyone can set up and start offering these.

Much as we’d like to offer direct NISA investment through our platform, that’s not a possibility at the moment.

There are two other ways P2P NISAs could be run:

  1. Through existing NISA providers: For example, to invest in a stocks and shares NISA, chances are you’ll use a portal such as Hargreaves Lansdown. However, in March 2014, it was reported that “in the short term, [they] almost certainly wouldn’t offer it”; a view echoed by other providers. Not looking good so far!
  2. A separate NISA portal: This would be run independently from traditional NISA brokers and allow people to invest directly through P2P platforms.

The honest answer at this stage is that no-one, including the Treasury, really knows how it will work, or when it will be a reality.

Various platforms, including Assetz Capital, are meeting with Treasury representatives to put forward ideas, but it’s immensely complicated and there’s no easy fix.

However, we do think there’s a good chance that P2P NISAs will be available before the end of the current tax year.

Once P2P NISAs are available, if you’re a higher rate taxpayer, you could increase returns by around 80%, and that’s before you take the tax trap into account.

Now that’s something to look forward to!

Stuart Law
CEO, Assetz Capital

- September 12, 2014

Back to News Stories