Lending Club has started a process to register, with the appropriate securities authorities, promissory notes that may be offered and sold to lenders through our site in the future. Until we complete the registration process, we will not accept new lender registrations or allow new commitments from existing lenders. We will continue to service all previously funded loans during this period, and lenders will be able to access their accounts, monitor their portfolios, and withdraw available funds without changes.
The borrowing side of our site will remain generally unaffected by this registration process; borrowers can continue to apply for loans and new loans posted after April 7, 2008, will be funded and held only by Lending Club.
Until the registration process is completed, the company will undergo a quiet period and will not be able to respond to press and other inquiries about Lending Club or the registration process during that time.
Free markets are characterized by prices that vary as a function of supply and demand, and Lending Club is no exception. Demand for loans within the Lending Club community has increased 3-fold in the last 30 days, soaring from 100 active listings in December to 300 active listings today. All loan requests are posted by members with at least a 640 FICO score, less than 30% debt-to-income ratio and no current delinquency.
As a result of the surge in loan requests, we are increasing the base rate today by another 25 bps, less than a month after the 50 bps announced on December 24. The Lending Club base rate increases by 25 bps across all loans grades, and rates now vary from 7.37% to 18.61%. See this page for more details on how we set interest rates, based on the risks associated with any given loan: http://www.lendingclub.com/info/how-we-set-interest-rates.action.
All Lending Club loans are fixed-rate, so the rate hike will only apply to new loan listings. As we continue to collect more data and refine our model, the rate-setting mechanism will become automatic, based on real-time supply and demand.
Better rates. Together.
In free markets, prices vary with supply and demand, and Lending Club is no exception. Until now, the Lending Club social lending community has enjoyed a near-perfect equilibrium of supply and demand, with funds available to lend slightly exceeding qualified loan applications.
The relaunch of our Facebook application and the addition of other online communities in early December, immediately followed by a National Launch with new loan applications flowing in from California, Texas, Illinois, Michigan and a few other states has increased demand (loan applications) faster than supply (lenders’ lending capital). As a result, we will increase our base rate tomorrow from 6.80% to 7.30%. This page will update to reflect the new rates: http://www.lendingclub.com/info/how-we-set-interest-rates.action.
As an example, a borrower with a 705 FICO score and a 20% DTI currently pays an interest rate of 12.17% for a $20,000 loan. Starting tomorrow, that same borrower would pay 12.67% for a new loan of the same size.
All Lending Club loans are fixed-rate, so the rate hike will only apply to new loan listings. The average return of all Lending Club lenders after 6 months now stands at 12.2% after fees and losses. Monday’s half-point rate hike will help lender returns while maintaining the high percentage of borrowers getting fully funded (currently at about 90%).
As we continue to collect more data and understand the platform’s behavior in different circumstances, the rate-setting mechanism will be established systematically based on real-time supply and demand.
We believe tomorrow’s rate hike is good for both lenders and borrowers: lenders will earn a better return and borrowers’ loan listings should get funded faster. The rate paid by Lending Club borrowers remains on average 25% lower than the average credit card rate, which stands at 15.24%.
Better rates and better returns. Together.
And here we are… Lending Club is finally available in California! Well, not just California. In fact we went National today, 6 months after the launch of our Facebook application and 3 months after the limited opening of our public website at www.lendingclub.com. In the last 6 months, Lending Club was not available to borrowers in California, Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Nevada, and was only partially available in Texas and Ohio. We did the math: that’s about 108 million more Americans who can now borrow and lend directly among each other and get better rates.
So this is really good news…first, because my neighbor in the quaint town of Los Gatos, CA will finally stop asking “Dude, when can I use your site?” and second, arguably more importantly, because in the current climate of tightening lending practices from the banks, people in every community across America are looking for alternatives to help meet their financial needs, and being available nationwide will help us serve our community better.
As we pointed out last weekend, affinities and connections among Lending Club members get most of the credit for the remarkably low defaults recorded by Lending Club borrowers over the last 6 months. The ability for Facebook users and members of Lending Club’s partner alumni and professional associations to connect across all 50 states will make the Lending Club network even more efficient and help us deliver even more value to both lenders and borrowers.
Better Rates Nationwide. Together.
Renaud from Lending Club
With the relaunch of our Facebook application and more alumni associations and other communities joining the Lending Club network, the number of active loan listings on LendingClub.com has jumped from 60 a couple of weeks ago to 115 this morning, totaling more than $1.35 million. Lending Club borrowers with loan requests on the site enjoy an average FICO score of about 700 and a 12% debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, excluding mortgage.
Lending Club maintains very high standards to list a loan, with a minimum FICO of 640 and a maximum DTI of 30% required. This means that a large number of loan applications (over 80%) do not meet our criteria and are not able to be listed. To put this into a financial perspective, the $1.35 million of loan listings on the site is the result of about $6.5 million in loan applications over the last 13 days. The good news for approved borrowers is that over 90% of our loan listings are funded. And, to assist Lending Club members whose loan applications were declined, we now offer tools and tips to help them build up their credit.
The average return of all Lending Club lenders after 6 months now stands at 12.2% after fees and losses, while the lowest performing loan portfolio currently earns a respectable 6.8%. The average return will continue to fluctuate over time with interest rates, average credit grades assigned to the loan listings and the number of delinquent loans (currently well under 1%).
We made summary statistics available a few weeks ago, and we will continue to make good on our promise to keep exposing more data and providing more transparency. For starters, we will make all loan data (excluding personally identifiable information) since inception available on LendingClub.com later this week.
Better rates and better returns. Together.
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