Interest in IFISAs surges as new rules unveiled
Interest in Innovative Finance ISAs (IFISAs) has soared by more than 130 per cent in the last six months, as the UK government announced new rules that will extend the remit of the product.
Property investment platform easyMoney analysed Google Search terms around the subject of investments and ISAs to assess interest between July 2023 and 2024, based on the ‘interest score’ attributed by Google.
An interest score represents interest relative to maximum search popularity for any given time and place. The score does not refer to the overall number of searches, but rather a term’s popularity. A score of 100 indicates maximum popularity.
While the broader search term ‘ISA’ saw a decline of 5.8 per cent over the period, ‘Innovative Finance ISA’ saw interest grow by 132.6 per cent.
Interest in ‘cash ISA’ fell by 21.8 per cent, while ‘stocks and shares ISA’ increased by 29 per cent.
In last November’s Autumn Statement, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt extended the remit of the IFISA to include open-ended property funds and Long-term Asset Funds.
Read more: New long-term funds set to democratise private credit
Additionally, the government will remove the one-ISA-per-year restriction that had previously limited IFISA investors from diversifying their money across multiple IFISA-eligible portfolios.
Partial transfers will also be permitted.
The new rules come into effect this April.
Read more: The new IFISA rules explained
“The new IFISA rules are very welcome indeed with the government deciding to expand the range of products available to investors,” said Jason Ferrando, chief executive of easyMoney.
“This can only be a positive step for the industry as not only does it provide a greater degree of choice and accessibility to the consumer, but it will help put the spotlight on IFISAs and the often superior returns they offer.
“These new rules will no doubt bring a lot of new IFISA providers into the market, and this competition will be good for investors.
“IFISAs are only seven years old, and already the interest in them has led the government to expand their scope. The future is very exciting indeed for investors of all sizes.”