Ratesetter launches adviser portal

IFAs can earn money through one of two ways by using the portal - either by taking some of the interest clients earn through the platform, which is capped at 1 per cent across products - or by putting a pre-arranged fee on using the Ratesetter through them.

The organisation has 23 IFAs on the portal at present, with another 20 waiting for approval.

IFAs need to have a Financial Conduct Authority licence to be approved by Ratesetter, and the peer to peer platform also does a due diligence check on the company to “make sure they have the right credentials to manage cash products.”

Ceri Williams, head of business development at Ratesetter, said: “We don’t allow them [IFAs] to play god in terms of setting their own rates and that they can’t play with the market. We we are an order driven exchange and those markets are set by supply and demand – we don’t let them play with that.

“What we allow them [IFAs] to do is take the administration off their clients hands and earn money in two ways. They can either take some of the interest, we cap that at 1 per cent of interest earned, which is in line we think with a lot of other products in the market, or they can put a pre-arranged fee on it.”

Mr Williams noted that the Ratesetter IFA portal is the only one of its kind within the global peer-to-peer industry.

He added: “We are the only ones that have done something specifically for that community – we have gone out of our way to build this product. Fine, it’s reflective of our normal retail rates, but it actually gives the IFA their own form of independence and we don’t think there’s any other platform doing this.

“From our point of view it’s a slow burn, but our retail product is keeping us really busy – the point is that we are at capacity all the time, so the IFA product we can afford to build slowly but surely – and that is a great position to be in.”

ruth.gillbe@ft.com