Lending Club

Fighting Identity Theft in the Era of Social Networks

Renaud Laplanche — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:37:09 +0000

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

Permalink | No comment

Who's linking:

Want more on these topics? Browse the archive: Lending Club.

Last 2 Days: Nominate Lending Club for Shorty Awards

Patrick Gannon — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 02:44:30 +0000

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!

Permalink | No comment

Who's linking:

Want more on these topics? Browse the archive: Lending Club.

2009: The Year Lending Club Became the World Leader in Peer-to-Peer Lending

Rob Garcia — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 12:00:09 +0000

I did not expect to be reminiscing about 2009 this early in the new year. But I now find myself looking back and marveling at how Lending Club went from half-operating in 2008, to getting through the registration process with the SEC in October of 2008, to then become a world leader in peer-to-peer lending in 2009 due to a hugely successful year.

In 2009, Lending Club originated nearly $52 million dollars in loans while we turned away almost half a billion dollars in demand. In December 2009 alone, Lending Club issued $7.1 million dollars in loans, more than 3 times the rest of the US industry combined (Total US P2P loan origination volume was $9.32 million dollars in December 2009).

In 2009, we accomplished other major feats:

We hit $500 Million in loan demand
Our Average Net Annualized returns remained above 9%
We Launched the first and only No-Fee IRA for P2P investors
We revolutionized the p2p investing user experience with new investor tools

All this growth and success were created by and for you, our community of savvy investors and borrowers, who continue to earn better-than-average returns or save hundreds of dollars on your monthly loan payments.

So what does 2010 have in store for us? I believe that in 2010 we will continue to accelerate growth. We feel that peer lending has reached a level of maturity, operates at a level of transparency and has a track record that makes it ready for prime time. We are not the only ones that believe this fact, Gartner predicts that “[b]y 2013, P2P lending will soar at least 66 per cent to $5 billion of outstanding loans.” See full report

So hop on, sign up if you haven’t already, and let’s make 2010 another great year to remember in 2011.

@RobGarciaSJ

Permalink | No comment

Who's linking:

Want more on these topics? Browse the archive: Lending Club, News, Press.