Pepper, Bank Leumi's mobile-only challenger bank, today launched a revolutionary new investment app, Pepper Invest. It enables customers to buy fractional shares in some 100 shares of top US companies (traded on the S&P 100 index), such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Ford, Starbucks, Goldman Sachs, Nike and Netflix, with a minimum investment amount of NIS 50.

Pepper Invest makes the US capital market accessible to a younger and wider audience (aged over 18); it is enabling those with no prior experience or knowledge of the capital markets or those who were deterred by broker commissions and other fees to start investing.

With a user-friendly language and interface, Pepper Invest provides customers with easy to follow trading insights, including comprehensive information about all the stocks available on the app, analysis of past stock performances, analysts’ recommendations, news, hot updates, a glossary of capital market terms, and more.  

Pepper Invest is based on a simple and straight forward fees model, which includes a uniform quarterly management fee of 0.2% of the portfolio’s value (0.08% annually), regardless of the amount invested or number of transactions made by the customer during each quarter. The new model gives customers full transparency and does not charge the customary trading fees and commissions, such as stock trading fees (per share), minimum fees, custodial fees, brokerage fees and other hidden fees.  

Michal Kissos Hertzog, CEO, Pepper comments: “Pepper Invest offers a unique trading experience, allowing customers to invest according to their financial abilities, without needing to purchase an entire stock. Pepper Invest represents a veritable revolution, in which technology not only changes the way we consume financial services, but also serves as a tool for financial education and empowerment of the younger generation.”          

Looking forward, Pepper Invest is expected to boost its share offering in addition to enable trading in leading US ETFs.

How does Pepper Invest work?

After a brief registration procedure, Pepper Invest customers will have their US dollar investment account opened, dedicated solely to investment in foreign stocks. Any buying and selling transactions will be conducted through the USD account. If there are insufficient funds to pay for a certain transaction, the absent amount will be automatically charged to the customer’s Pepper NIS current account, by converting NIS to USD dollars at the time of giving the buy order.

Market orders can be given at any time, 24/7, with the buying and selling transactions carried out close to the end of the trading day on the relevant US stock exchange (NYSE and/or NASDAQ). As mentioned above, Pepper Invest is the first app in Israel - and one of a few worldwide - to offer trading in fractional shares, at a minimum of NIS 50.