Lending Club Celebrates $13 Billion in Loans

There's no doubt that the growth Lending Club has seen since launching in 2007 has been impressive. Eight years after launch the FinTech leader has introduced new products, formed great partnerships, and now they celebrate facilitating over $13 billion (with a 'b') in loans. As they've come to do when hitting such milestones, the company recently took a look at what their loans have been used to achieve over the years. First, Lending Club notes than many of their customers use their personal loans to pay off credit card debt, but it doesn't end there. The company has also expanded into patient solutions and home improvement loans which have also proven popular. As far as small business loans go, the company's infographic highlights one borrower who used their loan to purchase a shrimp boat to grow their business. Lending Club also reports that their average personal loan customer saved 33% in interest compared to what they were paying on credit cards. Overall that equates to $1.3 billion in savings. To quantify just how much money that is, the company also provides some fun and eye-opening figures. For example, with the money Lending Club has saved its customers in interest, 4,441 families could have purchased new homes. If that's not impressive enough, the fact that $1.3 billion could also put 55,531 students through college surely is. Or how about paying to raise 5,306 children from birth up through their 18th birthday? Staggering. Of course what makes Lending Club interesting is that they created a platform that is not only great for consumers but also for investors. On that front the company reports that 99.9% of investors with more than 100 notes (and no one loan making up more than 1% of their total account) saw positive returns. Additionally historical returns have been between five and eight percent for their top three loan ratings. Along the way Lending Club has evolved from being a peer to peer lender (which they technically still are) to lead the way in what's coming to be known as a marketplace lending. While their platform still matches up borrowers with lenders willing to fulfill their loan, many large institutions have begun investing as well. This has certainly helped play a role in the company's journey to $13 billion. With an increased profile thanks to their IPO last year and positive word of mouth from their 1.1 million customers so far, Lending Club is primed for even more growth in the near future. In fact CEO Renaud Laplanche has spoken often of his desire to bring the company into many different facets of credit as possible — something he's made good on so far. Lending Club remains a shining example of what technology can bring to finance and having facilitated $13 billion is loans promises to be just the beginning.

Lending Club Celebrates $13 Billion in Loans was previously published on DyerNews.com