Innovative Finance ISA

badger09

For those waiting for these P2P ISAs to launch, I've just received this email from Zopa

'Dear xxx

We would like to update you on the expected launch date of the Zopa ISA.

In September 2015, we submitted our application for full authorisation to the FCA and have been working closely with them to progress our application. We will only be able to offer the Innovative Finance ISA after we have gained full authorisation.

Given the volume of P2P platforms requesting authorisation and a number of recent legislation changes, the majority of P2P platforms, including Zopa, will not complete the process before April 6th.

We are working with the FCA to be fully approved and ready to launch ISAs in the next few months. We'll let you know as soon as we have further news around the date of our ISA launch.

Whilst we know that this delay is disappointing, the good news for lenders is that from 06 April this year you will be able to earn tax free interest of up to £1000 on your P2P investments as part of the Personal Savings Allowance depending on your income tax level.

Here is a reminder of what the Zopa ISA will offer:

Great rates: Zopa will be offering customers the same great rates on the ISA as it does on its standard lending products - we're not going to introduce any additional fees or charges.

Flexible: Zopa's ISA will be flexible - if you need to access your money from Zopa, you won't lose your tax-free allowance. Flexible ISAs are a new ISA feature being introduced on 6th April 2016. For example: if you invest £15,240 and withdraw £5,000 from a flexible ISA, you could then put another £5,000 in at a later date within the same tax year, which would still earn tax-free interest. In a non-flexible ISA, that tax-free allowance would be lost.

ISA Transfers In: For those of you who have been building up your tax-free savings allowance over the years, you'll be able to transfer all or part of those balances over to a Zopa ISA. We hope you'll bring your existing balances over to us, and earn even greater rates!

Best,
The Zopa team'

MARTYM8`

Useful article here with a list of which players will be offering these new IFISAs from Wednesday - and which like zopa won't be ready until a later date.

Odd that the smaller/lesser known ones have got the clearance - but not the best known/bigger players.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/new-innovative-finance-isas-explained-7654535

nushnush

the bigger players have interim approval, because new players came into the market later ie after the rules were put in place, they were able to apply for full FCA approval. thats my basic understanding of it. im happy to be corrected though.

masonic

No P2P platform that was already operating at the start of this year could have done so without interim approval. I'm not familiar with all of the names in the article, but I don't think any of them are *that* new. AC certainly isn't.

The FCA are dealing with applications in batches. The first batch of platforms are the ones who applied right off the bat in 2015. It's interesting that the smaller of these have been able to progress faster, but this is probably because they are a bit more nimble and have been able to make changes to satisfy the FCA very quickly. They also have a lot to gain by beating their rivals to full permission, so are probably a bit more motivated than the likes of RS, Z and FC.

By current estimates, it seems we'll be lucky to see any more platforms get processed by the FCA before the end of the 2016/17 tax year.