Editing Individual savings account (section)

===CAT standards 1999-2005===
In April 1999, the Government introduced a voluntary ''CAT'' standard for ISAs (standing for "Charges, Access, and Terms") to make them easier for inexperienced customers to understand and with the intention that lower costs would attract more investors.  The standard does not guarantee the investment performance or that investors would buy or be sold the right type of investment.

Many equity funds also meet the CAT standards, but the restriction on costs generally means that these funds are [[index fund]]s, which require little management and simply follow a given index, such as the [[FTSE 100 Index]].

CAT standards were discontinued by the Treasury on 6 April 2005 following the introduction of the stakeholder product suite, although existing CAT standard ISAs continued on the same terms and conditions.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/press_95_04.htm|title=CAT standards|publisher=[[HM Treasury]]|access-date=27 October 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090714013542/http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/press_95_04.htm|archive-date=14 July 2009}}</ref>