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Marketplace lending platforms like Lending Club still need banks to make the loans. Cross River Bank CEO Gilles Gade, who has deals with 14 platforms and has talked with dozens of others, explains the mechanics of these agreements in a Q&A.
February 24 -
The online loan marketplace Lending Club has formed a partnership with a nationwide network of community bankers.
February 9 -
Renaud Laplanche is a happy if somewhat tired man. The company he founded, Lending Club, exceeded most expectations by closing its first day of public trading at $23.43 after starting at $15. But challenges lie ahead for his company and others in the alternative lending space.
December 11
Lending Club lost $9 million in the fourth quarter, hurt by expenses tied to its highly publicized initial public offering and by other costs.
Lending Club, the first marketplace loan company to go public, recorded $11 million in costs from its IPO in December. Meanwhile, operating expenses rose 150%, to $76.9 million, driven by a 113% increase in sales and marketing expenses, which rose to $26.4 million, and other items.
"It's just one quarter. We're very focused on the long run and the next five to ten years," Lending Club founder and chief executive officer Renaud Laplanche said in a phone call with American Banker. "We were very clear during the [IPO] road show that we continue to invest heavily" in the company, he said.
Lending Club made a $2.9 million profit during the same period the year before, though it posted losses throughout every quarter in 2014.
Originations more than doubled to $1.4 billion in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier. However, the company reported a $1.4 million net interest loss after a provision for loans losses and fair value adjustments.
The lender's revenues consisted largely of transaction fees, which increased 111% to $63.3 million.
Adjusted earnings per share for the company were $0.01, down one cent from the same time in 2013, and seven-tenths of a cent below the average estimate of analysts polled by Bloomberg.
