The Quoted Companies Alliance, the independent membership organisation that champions the interests of small to mid-size quoted companies, welcomes the regulatory green light for investors to include shares traded on small and medium-sized enterprise equity markets, such as AIM and the ICAP Securities and Derivatives Exchange (ISDX), in their Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) from today.
The Quoted Companies Alliance, along with the London Stock Exchange, investors and other business organisations, has been carrying out a long-term campaign to allow these shares into the popular, tax-efficient investment vehicle and included this measure in its recent Budget proposals.
The overwhelming view of small and mid-size quoted companies and their advisors is that allowing AIM and ISDX shares into ISAs would provide the greatest positive impact on growth of the small and mid-size quoted company sector. In the QCA/BDO Small and Mid-Cap Sentiment Index in February 2012 and again in September 2012, including AIM and ISDX companies’ shares into ISAs was the most popular fiscal measure amongst respondents.
Tim Ward, Chief Executive of the Quoted Companies Alliance, comments: “The Quoted Companies Alliance has been actively campaigning for the inclusion of AIM and ISDX shares in ISAs for some time and welcomes the Government’s decisive action on this. The decision will provide more fuel for the engines of growth and channel much-needed investment into the smaller growing companies that are the backbone of the UK economy.”
