Growth Street’s IFISA attracts £1m in just six weeks
GROWTH Street’s Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA) has attracted £1m in deposits in the six weeks since it was launched.
The peer-to-peer business lender said on Monday that it now has 179 investors signed up to its tax-free wrapper, which offers a fixed rate of 5.8 per cent with a one-year fixed term.
“Hitting the million-pound ISA mark so quickly is not only a great success story for Growth Street, but for the IFISA itself,” chief executive Greg Carter said. “To do it outside the scramble of ISA season, and at a time when P2P lending has had a tough time in the press, this milestone reflects the market’s appetite for innovative investment options”.
Read more: Growth Street launches IFISA
The P2P industry has come under scrutiny recently, with the Financial Conduct Authority sounding a warning about “high risk” IFISAs in April and property platform Lendy going into administration in May.
Funds invested in Growth Street’s IFISA are lent to the same portfolio of businesses as those in its classic account. The IFISA investments are held within an unlisted bond with a fixed term of one year.
Growth Street’s non-ISA product offers returns of up to 5.3 per cent with 30-day access.
Growth Street’s flagship product, GrowthLine, is a flexible overdraft-style line of credit offered to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) across the UK. Earlier this month, Growth Street announced that it had lent out more than £500m through the 30-day revolving credit facility.
The company said in late May that it has over 2,500 investors on its platform and has lent more than £96m to SMEs.
Read more: Growth Street hits investor milestone after IFISA launch