Comments on: Lending Club’s full disclosure…

By: Fred93

Fred93 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:56:30 +0000

Thanks NewHorizon, and sorry for the slipped fingers.

By: NewHorizon

NewHorizon — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 20:01:52 +0000

Typo in Fred’s URL – one too many “o”s.
Either click on “Fred93″ on his post or go to
http://fred93blog.blogspot.com/

He’s got great stuff there….

By: Fred93

Fred93 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:52:37 +0000

Oops. Forgot to give you the URL where I publish those charts

http://fred93blog.bloogspot.com/

By: Fred93

Fred93 — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:52:01 +0000

I publish charts showing loan performance on major P2P websites such as lendingclub and prosper. You may be shocked to learn how many of these loans go bad.

Your concern about how exposed all that disclosure would make you feel is perhaps appropriate, but you should also think about this from the lender’s perspective. Much of what borrowers write is fiction.

By: Michelle Leder

Michelle Leder — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:39:13 +0000

@ Nora: Everyone needs an editor. Thanks for being mine. I’ve gone ahead and fixed it. Only happened because I was looking at some docs for Lending Tree earlier today and obviously my brain got in the way of my fingers!

By: Nora Lenderbee

Nora Lenderbee — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:30:51 +0000

Your second paragraph says Lending *Tree*, not Lending *Club*. A minor mistake–but minor errors damage one’s credibility.

By: NewHorizon

NewHorizon — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:15:21 +0000

“After all, I’d want to know what the money will be used for — a Disney cruise or a hot dog cart. ”

Just please be careful about this. There are borrowers who’ll say anything that gets them the $$$. There’s nothing stopping them from saying they want a loan to start a business, for example, and then use the funds to go on a Disney cruise.

Certainly, one should quickly pass on the hot dog cart listings. But veteran Prosper lenders who’ve been following loan performances have learned – often the hard way – to otherwise heavily discount the text of the listings.

By: Michelle Leder

Michelle Leder — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:57:00 +0000

I don’t have a problem with full disclosure between borrower and lender. That not only makes sense, it seems like not doing so would be pretty dumb. After all, I’d want to know what the money will be used for — a Disney cruise or a hot dog cart.

But I just wonder if the level of detail provided in this filing and other similar filings isn’t just a bit creepy. How many high-end rug stores are there in Austin, that, when paired with some of the other info in the filing, would take more than 5 minutes to figure out? It’s also hard for me to imagine, @NewHorizon that the SEC would consider these disclosures material, though I may be wrong since I’m not entirely sure what rules Lending Club is operating under. They’re not public in the sense that their shares trade, but clearly they’re required to disclose certain info in the filings.

By: Rob G

Rob G — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:56:54 +0000

Michelle:

Our members’ privacy and the protection of their sensitive personal information are of top important to us.

We review credit carefully and frequently delist loans where the story does not seem to match the credit profile. Ultimately, people choose what to invest in. An interesting fact is that more than 85% of our approved loans obtain full funding.

Our investor community show an average net annualized return of 9.90% as of this morning.

Rob G from Lending Club

By: SFLENDER

SFLENDER — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:44:24 +0000

Having lent for sometime on Prosper (and soon to Lending Club since Prosper is still in SEC filing) the amount of personal information provided by the borrower is VERY important to us lenders to make a decision on making a bid on the loan. No PERSONAL information is ever shown but borrowers ARE encouraged to tell their story. I tend to stay away from those who do not give details but even so is not a guarantee that they will stay the course of the loan. Long story short – know the risk – READ the credit info and the reason for loan!