Wise Alpha looks to tempt retail bond investors with Smart Interest

Launched in June 2016, WiseAlpha is the UK’s first platform giving retail bond investors and savers access to corporate bonds issued in the institutional debt market; in a little over a year the company has attracted more than 2,500 registered members looking for guaranteed fixed income and has offered over fifty investment opportunities.

The high yield bonds are issued as senior secured debt and come from big corporates including Virgin Media, Pizza Express, the AA and Debenhams, and could be attractive for investors starved of issuance on the LSE’s ORB exchange.

WiseAlpha believes that its model puts it in the vanguard of the fast moving fintech space (see www.muckle.online) and predicts that peer-to-peer corporate lending will follow a similar growth trajectory to peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, ‘giving investors choice and control over their wealth accumulation.’

The company has now announced the launch of Smart Interest ​ ​- a flexible retail bond product that enables investors to customise their rate or investment term.

‘a flexible retail bond product that enables investors to customise their rate or investment term’

Investors can use Smart Interest to customise the rate of interest (coupon payments) they receive between 3% and 8% per annum, with investment terms ranging from 1-7 years.

As well as the flexibility to choose the duration of their loan and the reward they receive, Smart Interest gives retail investors exposure to a senior secured and high yield asset class that was previously only accessible to the financial elite.

WiseAlpha determines an investment strategy and decides which corporations to lend to, much as a mutual fund manager may invest in a range of assets; however, unlike a mutual fund the investor receives annual coupons with the full amount of investment returned at the end of the chosen term.

The company said it believes this model is less volatile, given investments are made in FTSE 350 size businesses with proven track records.

At the launch of Smart Interest, CEO and founder of Wise Alpha, Rezaah Ahmad, said: ‘Today’s launch of Smart Interest is one of our most exciting product launches to date.’

‘When set against the backdrop of paltry bank interest rates, Smart Interest enables all types of investor to gain exposure to high quality corporate debt in a simple, predictable way. With inflation standing at 2.9 per cent and fixed rate bank savings bond rates far below inflation, the majority of savers are losing money in real terms. Smart Interest has been designed with this in mind; to offer high quality income-based investments, at a time when the retail investor community truly needs them.’

‘We are confident that our members will enjoy the customisable nature of our new product, while being able to access the compelling yields within the institutional debt market. Until WiseAlpha liberalised this multi-trillion market for the masses … we are firm believers of a fairer investment world and technology is helping us achieve these goals.’