SXSW Interactive has quickly become the conference where attendees and presenters explore the latest trends, technologies and products that are changing how we interact, communicate and transact. 

This year, Lending Club will sit with SmartyPig, Mint and CreditKarma to talk money and innovation in the banking industry.  Jennifer Openshaw, CEO of Family Financial Network will moderate a conversation that promises to be interesting and thought provoking. 

In the midst of a financial crisis, people are compelled to save, budget and lower their dependency on traditional financial services. Stock picking communities, person-to-person lending, personal finance management and even credit score management tools, have emerged to serve the changing needs of customers exclusively served by traditional banks and credit unions.

In this panel, we will discuss key trends, emerging technologies, and financial products that are changing the way people interact with the banking and financial services industries. 

Banking 2.0: Financial Services Driven by People & Emerging Technologies
Saturday March 13 at 12:30pm at the Hilton Hotel, downtown Austin, Room G
Moderated by Jennifer Openshaw, CEO of Family Financial Network
Attend >>

Panelists: 
Rob Garcia, Sr Director Product Strategy, LendingClub.com
Aaron Forth, VP of Product, Mint.com
Kenneth Lin, CEO, CreditKarma.com
Bob Weinschenk, CEO, SmartyPig.com

Can’t attend in person?  Don't miss out on this stellar line-up! 
Follow @SXSWfinance for live updates and questions to the panelists during the panel.

Earlier this month, premier Lending Club investors came together to share investing stories and strategies as well as to celebrate the unveiling of our new website.  Renaud Laplanche, founder and CEO, gave a short presentation outlining Lending Club’s past achievements and a brief walk-through of the new site.

Renaud and other Lending Club team members were on hand to field questions and listen to feedback from some of our most involved investors.   Events of this kind are an essential step in ensuring Lending Club is reaching the goals of our investors and providing the services our investors need.

Ten lucky investors also got a chance to test drive Tesla   Motor’s high performance Roadster, a fully electric sports car that can hit 60 mph in right around 3.9 seconds.

Check out more pictures here >>

See you at our next event!

Sam

Late next week, we will be unveiling a new visual identity and website design, and I am excited to give you a sneak peek.

Our new look will better express our values (trustworthy, transparent, professional yet friendly and accessible) as well as Lending Club’s commitment to innovative financial services.  Our concept is smart and simple, and our new site will reflect that.  Our goal is to make it easier and more engaging for our members to get lower rates and earn better returns.  The new site works harder to help investors better understand our concept, and the most creditworthy borrowers feel more confident in getting a loan at better terms than they would get from a traditional bank.

Our new site offers existing members the same great functionality to track your loan or investments, and will make it easier to develop new features going forward.

We hope you enjoy our new face.  Check back in a week for full access to our redesigned website!

@robgarciasj

Identity verification is a critical fraud prevention tool used by banks, credit card companies and other lenders.   Lending Club has recently begun to leverage the information available on social networks to help confirm a potential member’s identity.

We continue to rely on methods of identity verification used by traditional lenders, but in an era of online identity theft, Lending Club is continually redefining industry best practices.

We cannot disclose our exact methodology, practices, or sources of information, as this could simply empower the fraudsters we are trying to disarm. But what we can say is that we use information gathered from social networks to help give us more confidence that a member is in fact who they say they are.
When we do find a case of identity theft, we work with the true owner of the identify and law enforcement authorities to track down and prosecute anyone who has committed identity theft.  In addition, we will reimburse lenders for the unpaid principal balance of loans where we have confirmed that the borrower has committed identity theft.

As a financial services innovator, Lending Club is constantly assessing new methods to better secure our platform.  Identity confirmation measures are simply a next step in the evolution of financial services.
Our member’s privacy is our top concern.

Image courtesy of scansnap

Lending Club award-winning approach to investing and borrowing has been recognized through the years by organizations such as Harvard Business Review, Webby, WebAward, and W3 Awards.  But we had never been considered for something as unique as the Shorty Awards.

The Shorty Awards honor the best people and organizations creating content on Twitter. These unique awards are for the Twitter community, by the Twitter community to recognize the creators of the best "short" content, activity also known as "Micro-blogging".

So if you have a minute, help us rack up the votes:

Nominate @RobGarciaSJ in the #finance category.  Rob tweets hourly about microfinance, p2plending, personal finance and financial innovation

-OR-

Nominate @LendingClub in the #innovation category, our twitter account keeps our followers  updated on the latest trends, news and promotions about investing and borrowing via Lending Club

Voting ends on Friday January 29th at midnight.

Happy it tweeting!