Posted by Joaquin Delgado :: September 22, 2007 @ 12:10 pm

Going beyond Facebook has sparked quite a lot of press and the interest of more users, most of whom are unfamiliar with P2P Lending. Along with the opening of our website, we have also received several requests to expose raw data and performance statistics about loans and lenders. We believe this is very important in order to maintain full transparency and allow users to see the benefits of Lending Club for themselves. While we work on ways of exposing this information in a private, secure and efficient manner, we have already taken some steps in this direction. Here are some datasets we have made available:

Top Lenders by Performance

The Lender Rankings page contains a list of the top 100 performing portfolios (one per lender) containing at least $50, in order of estimated return on investment. Lenders are identified by screen name to protect their privacy. The table displays the following information:

• Portfolio rank

• Lender screen name

• Portfolio name

• Amount of initial investment

• Estimated return on investment

Click to Enlarge Image

Calculation of estimated return on investment

The estimated return on investment is calculated by taking the average interest rate of a portfolio and deducting the Lending Club servicing fee, defaults and late loans expected to default.

• The average interest rate excludes the origination fee for each loan (origination fee varies according to each loan grade)

• The late loan amount is calculated by deducting monthly payments already made from the principal

• Loans more than 1 month late are estimated to default at a 50% clip

• Default losses (projected defaults for late loans and actual defaults) are calculated using a 90% clip (10% recovery rate) for default loans

• Paid/repurchased loans are included in the current average interest rate calculation. This may change in the future

• The late/default rates are projected out to one year

• Lending Club servicing fees are 1% for all loans

• All loans are included in the calculation for late/default rates in the formula regardless of age

Formula:

Estimated ROI = Average Interest Rate - (Loss due to Late Loans - Loss due to Default Loans) - Lending Club Servicing Fee

Where:

• Loss due to Late Loans = Sum(50% * (unpaid percentage) * (interest rate of the late loan))

• Loss due to Default Loans = Sum(90% * (unpaid percentage) * (interest rate of the default loan))

• Lending Club Servicing Fee = 1% / 3 years = 0.33%

For those that want to use this information as input to other computations, we also expose this information via a downloadable XML file (available here) that gets updated daily.

Member Map

Available directly on our homepage, this feature displays information about current lenders, borrowers and issued loans plotted on a Google Map. Members are identified by screen name, and location is based on zip code only (with a certain level of Geocode randomization) to ensure members’ privacy. When an icon is clicked, a call-out displays the following information:

Borrowers / Issued Loans	Lenders
• Screen name	• Screen name
• Title / Link to the loan page	• Amount of portfolio initial investment
• Amount of the Loan	• Location (city, state)
• Amount left to fund
• Location (city, state)
Click to Enlarge Image	Click to Enlarge Image

This information is also available in XML format for external consumption here, and the file is updated on a daily basis.

As noted, we will be releasing additional data in the near future. Meanwhile, we hope the above information will be helpful to those who are evaluating Lending Club.

Better Rates. Together.