LendingClub Broadens Access To Credit With Select Plus Platform

To broaden access to responsible credit with additional models, LendingClub has announced the rollout of its Select Plus Platform. The offering opens the company’s marketplace to sophisticated investors to find opportunities for approving borrowers who fall outside the current criteria, LendingClub said in an announcement.

“This is a huge step forward in our evolution as we continue to unlock the power of the marketplace model to generate access and, ultimately, savings for borrowers by finding and matching the right capital sources with the right borrowers,” said Chief Capital Officer Valerie Kay in the announcement. “The Select Plus Platform went from inception to execution in less than a year – a true testament to our speed in building new products that leverage our investor base to expand our borrower base.”

LendingClub received more than 14 million applications for loans originated by banks last year. The company’s new custom program will reach people across the credit spectrum who currently do not receive loan offers on the platform because they fall outside the criteria currently used by the bank lender. Select Plus provides loan applicants with seamless access to credit within the company’s current rate parameters and enables investors to access new opportunities for potentially attractive risk-adjusted returns. The platform aims to grow LendingClub’s customer base as well as the efficiency of its demand generation.

Theorem Partners, LLC will be the first investor to use Select Plus. Theorem Managing Partner Hugh Edmundson said in the announcement, “By integrating the Theorem Score, our credit investment model, with LendingClub’s new Select Plus platform, LendingClub can now offer access to affordable credit to borrowers who would have previously been declined. We are excited about this initiative and that LendingClub’s scale and expertise in demand generation will open up a path to financial health to more borrowers.”

Select Plus Platform joins other recent LendingClub innovations like Levered Certificates and CLUB Certificates to offer access to the increasingly mainstream asset class of consumer lending. LendingClub has facilitated billions of loans made by WebBank, member FDIC, since its rollout in 2007. The company also noted that a quarter of the loan volume over the entire history of the firm occurred last year.