‘Easy access’ investment will be available in a RateSetter ISA

RateSetter has improved customers’ access to their money by removing all early exit fees from its monthly investment market. This means that RateSetter’s 33,000 investors can now benefit from great rates of return combined with easy access to their money.

RateSetter’s monthly market has proven very popular with investors, delivering an average rate of 3.1% p.a. over the last five years. The latest rate can be found here.

As with all marketplace lending, the speed of access to money is dependent on liquidity. RateSetter has managed market liquidity for over five years, the result being that no investor has ever had to wait to withdraw their money from RateSetter. Early withdrawal fees remain in place for RateSetter’s one year, three year and five year investments.  More information can be found here.  RateSetter is looking at options to simplify the way fees are calculated to provide greater certainty to investors.

The announcement comes less than two months before the launch date for the Innovative Finance ISA (IF ISA) on 6 April and follows the release of information on RateSetter’s forthcoming IF ISA over a week ago.  RateSetter has confirmed that customers will be able to invest in any of its markets within an IF ISA wrapper, and thus can benefit from easy access investments with tax-free returns.

In a public survey conducted by RateSetter 40% of 2,076 people cited access to their money as a key priority when making investment decisions.

Rhydian Lewis, RateSetter’s CEO and founder commented: “Ever since our launch in 2010, we have been proud to lead the way in innovation.  We pioneered the concept of a Provision Fund to protect investors and were the first in our sector to introduce a monthly investment market. As our customer base continues to grow strongly and our market broadens and deepens, we are delighted to again lead the way by combining attractive returns for investors with free and fast access to their money. With our great rates of return, excellent track record of investor protection and now easy access, RateSetter is reintroducing the concept of value in finance.”

As Ratesetter does not feature a full-blown secondary market with pricing influenced/set by sellers, some investors felt ‘Sell Out’ fees were rather high, this is a step to improved liquidity for investors.