What can you currently put in an ISA?

[d000hg]

My cursory googling didn't turn up an easy bullet-point list of what can and cannot go in an ISA under current laws, and is planned in 2017 and beyond.

Can anyone point me to something that makes this clear, and/or explain their own understanding?

[missinggreenfields]

Government website:

Cash ISAs can include:

• savings in bank and building society accounts
• some National Savings and Investments products

Stocks and shares ISAs can include:

• shares in companies
• unit trusts and investment funds
• corporate bonds
• government bonds

You can’t transfer any non-ISA shares you already own into an ISA unless they’re from an employee share scheme.

Innovative finance ISAs can include peer-to-peer loans, which are loans that you give to other people or businesses without using a bank. You can’t transfer any peer-to-peer loans you’ve already made into an innovative finance ISA.

[d000hg]

Thanks for that. When we talk about "shares in companies" what restrictions exist on that? Only shares on a recognised stock exchange for instance? What if my mate asks me to invest in his company directly? Or we were talking the other day about Seedr.com, which lets companies crowd-source funds through share purchasing?