Women increasingly investing in stocks and shares ISAs, says Scottish Friendly

Scottish Friendly has seen investment by female customers into newly opened stocks and shares ISA policies reach its highest level than in any quarter since the start of the global pandemic.

The Glasgow-based financial mutual explains how its investor index tracks sales of adult investment ISAs, and the total value of these new policies among its UK-wide customer base.

It has revealed that the value of new policies opened by women in the final quarter of 2021 jumped by 23 per cent from the last three months of 2019, and is 4 per cent higher than in the last quarter of 2020. In contrast, the value of new stocks and shares ISA policies opened by men has remained flat – increasing by just 1.5 per cent since Q4 2019.

New policy sales figures for all customers during Q4 2021 are up 13 per cent on the same period in 2019, with the values of those new policies increasing by 10 per cent over that period, while the number of newly opened junior stocks and shares ISAs has risen every quarter since the end of 2019.

Kevin Brown, savings specialist at Scottish Friendly, said: “The dash of spare cash into ISAs that started during the pandemic seems to be continuing as our numbers show.”

However, he also said increasingly stretched purse strings may lead to “a slowing in these numbers in the near future… The sharp rise in the cost of living and growing economic uncertainty presents potentially a problematic picture in the short term, and people may need to rely on the buffers they have built to stay above the rising waters.”

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The value of new policies opened by women in the final quarter of 2021 is up by 23 per cent on the same period in 2019 (file image). Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto.

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