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Allia C&C joins forces with other UK bodies to campaign for lower limit on Retail Charity Bonds

Allia C&C – an expert in socially responsible finance – has joined forces with the Impact Investing Institute, Big Society Capital and Social Enterprise UK to lobby for the threshold for Retail Charity Bonds (RCB) to be lowered to allow more charity borrowers access to this type of funding.

Allia Ltd launched RCB in 2014 as a new platform to enable charitable organisations to raise smaller amounts of debt on the capital markets, previously inaccessible to borrowers looking to raise much less than £50 million. Bonds are listed on the London Stock Exchange – giving the charity access to a broad range of retail investors, who are looking to invest ethically.

However the minimum issue size is currently £10 million, and Allia C&C believes that there are significantly more charities that might want to borrow between £5m to £10m than could borrow more than £10m. This would enable more charities to access loan finance that could help support their impact aims by being able to grow and develop their organisation.

“We believe that such a change would benefit more charities with access to medium-term unsecured funding through the capital markets that is not available to them elsewhere, resulting in the growth of charitable activities and greater social benefit, particularly in areas such as affordable housing, supported living and care for the elderly.”

Read more on Allia C&C’s website and if you represent a UK charity, please consider signing the campaign statement in support: https://alliacc.com/rcb-campaign/