The Abundance marketplace operates as what is known as a bulletin board, and not a regulated exchange like the stock market (called a multilateral or organised trading facility in the regulatory terminology).

As a bulletin board, the marketplace allows investors to connect with buyers and sellers but the agreement to conclude a trade itself is made directly via email (or in another written form) rather than a mechanism on the Abundance platform. This is a requirement for a bulletin board and allows customers to trade even small amounts of investments with no charge currently.

This means that an offer to sell an investment and a buyer’s interest in buying the investment made via the Abundance marketplace is non-binding initially and only confirmed once an agreement has been reached by email.

Therefore, when a buyer is interested in purchasing a seller’s investment, they are put in contact with the seller by email and at the same time they reserve payment for the investment in their Abundance account. The written agreement can come in many forms, but a simple email agreement between the buyer and seller is sufficient. In most cases the buyer and seller will simply agree to the trade as set out in the seller’s original listing on the marketplace, however you are free to come to a different agreement.

The email connecting the buyer and seller will also copy in Abundance ([email protected]), so you can simply ‘reply all’ when agreeing to a trade to ensure Abundance is aware when a trade is agreed. Once an agreement has been reached and Abundance has been informed by both parties that they wish to proceed, we will administer the trade by transferring the investment to the buyer and transferring the reserved payment to the seller’s Abundance account.

If no agreement is reached in 7 days then the trade will be automatically rejected and the investment will be re-listed for sale.

If an investor puts up an listing to sell an investment on the marketplace, their first name will appear against their listing on the marketplace.

If a buyer is interested in buying an investment, they will be connected to the seller by email so both the buyer and seller will have access to each other’s email addresses. The seller will also receive the buyer’s first name.

No other information or personal details are provided to the buyer or seller, although both parties are welcome to provide any relevant information once they are connected by email.

To view the Abundance marketplace you must have signed up for an Abundance account. An Abundance member will only be put in contact with an investor who is selling an investment once they have completed Abundance’s identity verification process.

Abundance expects members who are using our marketplace to treat each other with respect and conduct their trades in a courteous manner. If either a buyer or seller feels that another party is not using the system appropriately or is being abusive, please report this to Abundance immediately and we will investigate the matter.

Abundance reserves the right to revoke a person’s membership if such claims are substantiated.

Our marketplace is a place to connect sellers and potential buyers of existing investments. A final price and trade agreement can then be agreed directly between the seller and buyer. Abundance is the registrar of your investments and we will make sure both the buyer and seller are happy with the trade agreed before we update the register.

However, Abundance cannot be held responsible or liable for any disputes stemming from trades that have come about due to introductions made through our marketplace. If you have any concerns about conducting a trade or the terms of any binding agreement to buy or sell investments, please speak to a lawyer. You may consider it important to obtain legal advice in particular if you are selling a large quantity.