Features and benefits

You are lending money to a UK council through a peer to peer loan.

Councils use the money raised to fund green projects and must comply with the Green Loan Principles. Each council reports on how they have spent the money.

You are lending money to the council for a fixed period, typically a number of years. You will not be able to access your money until you are repaid under the terms of the investment.

The interest rate is fixed for the length of investment.

The rate is based on the cost of borrowing for the UK government and is therefore comparable to the interest rate on other forms of public borrowing, like National Savings & Investment and UK Gilts.

You are lending money to a council, so this is not a savings account. However councils’ legal framework make it unlikely it will not be able to pay you back.

The council will repay your loan either in 6-monthly instalments (alongside your interest) or in one lump sum at the end of the loan. Check the key terms for the loan to see the repayment type.

You can invest through an Innovative Finance ISA and get tax-free interest on your council investments.

You can list your investment for sale on our marketplace if you need to get your money back early. But there is no guarantee you will find a buyer, and you may get back less than you invested.

There are no fees for investors. (We earn a fee from the councils raising money.)

The service Abundance provides in relation to peer to peer loans (our council investments) is not covered by FSCS.

Abundance provides the online platform through which you lend money to the council and we administer the payment of interest and capital from the council back to you. If a council defaults on a loan, Abundance would seek to recover the debt on your behalf.

In the unlikely event that Abundance was to go out of business, each council would still need to pay what is owed to you. However without Abundance there could be some administrative disruption and it would be harder to sell your investment if needed.