LC Company Profile

Lending Club is the world’s largest online marketplace connecting borrowers and investors. We believe a technology-powered marketplace is a more efficient mechanism to allocate capital between borrowers and investors than the traditional banking system. Our marketplace substantially reduces the need for physical infrastructure and improves convenience and automation, which increases efficiency, reduces manual processes, and improves the overall borrower and investor experience.

Qualified consumers and small business owners borrow through Lending Club to lower the cost of their credit and enjoy a better experience than traditional bank lending. We believe the range of loan products we facilitate are simple, fair and responsible credit products that make it easier for consumers to budget for monthly repayment and meet their financial goals.

Investors use Lending Club to earn attractive risk-adjusted returns from an asset class that has generally been closed to many investors and only available on a limited basis to large institutional investors. The capital to invest in the loans enabled through our marketplace comes directly from a wide range of investors, including retail investors, high-net-worth individuals and family offices, banks and finance companies, insurance companies, hedge funds, foundations, pension plans and university endowments, and through a variety of investment channels.

We have developed our proprietary technology platform to support our marketplace and offer a variety of our issuing banks’ loan products to interested investors. Our proprietary technology automates key aspects of our operations, including the borrower application process, data gathering, credit decisioning and scoring, loan funding, investing and servicing, regulatory compliance and fraud detection. Our platform offers sophisticated analytical tools and data to enable investors to make informed decisions and assess their portfolios. Our extensible technology platform has allowed us to expand our offerings from personal loans to include small business loans, and to expand investor classes from individuals to institutions and create various investment vehicles.

We generate revenue from transaction fees from our marketplace’s role in accepting and decisioning applications for our bank partners to enable loan originations, servicing fees from investors for matching available loan assets with capital, and management fees from investment funds and other managed accounts. Our business model is not dependent on using our balance sheet and assuming credit risk for loans facilitated by our marketplace. In order to support contractual obligations (Pool B loans), regulatory commitments (direct mail), the testing of pilot loan programs, or customer accommodations, we may use our capital on the marketplace from time to time and on terms that are substantially similar to other investors.

We believe a transparent and open marketplace where borrowers and investors have access to information, complemented by technology and tools, can make credit more affordable, redirect existing pools of capital trapped inside the banking system, and attract new sources of capital to a new asset class. We believe that online marketplaces have the power to transform the traditional banking system, facilitate more efficient deployment of capital, and improve the global economy.

We believe the ability of individuals and small businesses to access affordable credit is essential to stimulating and sustaining a healthy, diverse and innovative economy. Lending to consumers provides financial flexibility and gives households better control over when and how to purchase goods and services. While borrower appetite for consumer and small business credit has typically remained strong in most economic environments, general economic factors and conditions, including the general interest rate environment and unemployment rates, may affect borrower willingness to seek loans and investor ability or desire to invest in loans.

Access to Affordable Credit. Our innovative marketplace model, online delivery and process automation enable us to offer borrowers interest rates that are generally lower on average than the rates charged by traditional banks, credit cards or installment loans.
Superior Borrower Experience. We offer a fast and easy-to-use online application process and provide borrowers with access to live support and online tools throughout the process and over the life of the loan.

Transparency and Fairness. The installment loans offered through our marketplace feature a fixed rate that is clearly disclosed to the borrower during the application process, with fixed monthly payments, no hidden fees and the ability to prepay the balance at any time without penalty. Small business lines of credit have rates based upon the prime rate and allow borrowers to draw in increments, reducing their interest cost. Our platform utilizes an automated, rules-based engine for credit decisioning, which removes the human bias associated with reviewing applications.

Fast and Efficient Decisioning. We leverage online data and technology to quickly assess risk, detect fraud, determine a credit rating and assign appropriate interest rates quickly.

We believe that our marketplace provides the following benefits to investors:

Access to a New Asset Class. All investors can invest in personal loans facilitated through our standard loan program. Additionally, qualified investors can invest in loans facilitated through our custom program loan program in private transactions. These asset classes have historically been funded and held by financial institutions or large institutional investors on a limited basis.

Attractive Risk-Adjusted Returns. We offer investors attractive risk-adjusted returns on loans offered through our marketplace.

Transparency. We provide investors with transparency and choice in building their loan portfolios.

Easy-to-Use Tools. We provide investors with tools to easily build and modify customized and diversified portfolios by selecting loans tailored to their investment objectives and to assess the returns on their portfolios. Investors can also enroll in automated investing, a free service that automatically invests any available cash in loans according to investor-specified criteria.