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Cash interest explained |
You will receive interest on balances in your platform cash account at the prevailing rate.
Embark Investment Services Limited acts as the custodian for investments on the Willis Owen platform and is one of our strategic partners that provides our Willis Owen ISA, GIA, Junior ISA and SIPP.
Embark places cash with a number of banking partners for safekeeping and to provide the potential for you to earn interest on money in your platform cash account. By managing cash in this way, it aims to provide better protection and a higher overall level of interest than if all funds were placed with a single bank.
The rates of interest paid by banks will vary. Embark retains a portion of the interest earned to cover its costs in managing platform cash.
Current Interest Rate
The table below shows the current customer interest rate payable on cash balances along with the amount of interest retained by Embark. The customer interest rate shown is that after accounting for interest retained by Embark:
| Date From | Customer Interest Rate | Interest retained by Embark |
|---|---|---|
| 25th March 2024 | 2.46% | 1.75% - 2.00% |
Embark can change the rate of interest at any time and it reviews the position at least quarterly. Interest is calculated and accrued daily and is credited to your account on the first of each month. If you transfer out, accrued interest is applied at the point of transfer. We will inform you if and when the interest rate changes as soon as is practicable.
Interest retained
The table below shows the yearly equivalent rates of interest Embark expects to pay based on a range of possible yearly interest rates it may earn.
| Interest Embark expects to earn | Customer Interest Rate | Interest retained by Embark |
|---|---|---|
| 0-1% | 0 – 0.46% | 0 – 0.54% |
| 1-2% | 0.46% – 0.94% | 0.54% – 1.06% |
| 2-3% | 0.94% – 1.46% | 1.06% – 1.54% |
| 3-4% | 1.46% – 2.02% | 1.54% – 1.98% |
| 4-5% | 2.02% – 2.61% | 1.98% – 2.39% |
| 5%+ | 2.61%+ | 2.39%+ |
Historic Interest Rates
To see details of historic customer interest rates, along with the amount of interest retained by Embark, click here.
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These are domiciled outside the UK, but have been given recognised status by the FCA. The term also refers to funds domiciled elsewhere in the European Economic Area which entered into the temporary marketing permissions regime (TMPR) following Brexit, allowing them to continue to be marketed to UK investors
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA recognised status means that the funds are approved for marketing to the retail public within the UK but (and this is an important distinction between these funds and Regulated Onshore Funds) they may not fall under the remit of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS – please see our dedicated money protection page for further information. Therefore, complaints and compensation arrangements lay within the jurisdiction of where the funds are domiciled (e.g. Luxembourg, Dublin etc), which are different to those available for UK Authorised Funds.
A large proportion of Offshore Domiciled Funds are based in either Luxembourg or Dublin. Of those domiciled in Luxembourg most are held under a SICAV (which is a French acronym for 'Société d’Investissement a Capital Variable') umbrella structure. In much the same way UK funds can be held under an Open Ended Investment Companies (OEIC) umbrella structure. By umbrella structure, we mean a collective investment scheme that exists as a single legal entity, under which many sub-funds are held.
For example one umbrella SICAV/OEIC may hold a sub-fund called ‘UK Smaller Companies’ and another sub-fund called ‘UK Equity Income’. Each sub-fund has its own investment aims and is held separately from other sub-funds within the same umbrella. Some advantages of the umbrella fund structure include making it cheaper for investors to move from one sub-fund to another and it also saves the investment manager costs relating to regulatory duplication.
The FCA recognised status can be applied to either individual funds or to the umbrella structure itself, in which case all funds listed within that structure would have FCA recognised status.
Dublin domiciled funds are generally OEICs.
This is the European (offshore) version of an 'OEIC' – it is an investment company that is 'open-ended’ (i.e. its shares can be bought or sold on any dealing day). Instead of having an Authorised Corporate Director (ACD), a SICAV tends to have a board of individual directors, which may or may not appoint a management company to be responsible for managing the fund’s day-to-day activities.
Investing offshore may offer you a wider choice of funds and the opportunity to diversify your investment portfolio further. It is important to be aware however, that an investment in an Offshore Fund may:
The best way to check the recognised status of an Offshore domiciled Fund is to visit the Financial Services Register for collective investment schemes and input the relevant Fund details into the fields presented.
The relevant information regarding where a fund is domiciled is also available within the Product Provider’s literature, typically within the main Prospectus or the Key Investor Information Document (KIID). You can also use view a fund prospectus via the documents section of the explore tool.
e.g Prospectus detail from Fund Provider Pictet:
Funds can achieve FCA recognised status in one of 2 ways:
