Peer-to-peer lending company Lending Club hit a new record high in the amount of loans that it originated during the month of August, issuing more than $12 million in loans to borrowers during the month.
Lending Club is part of a fledgling niche in the financial industry called peer to peer lending, in which a company acts as a marketplace between its members that borrow and lend money to one another. Lending Club boasts that it provides investors much better rates of returns than they would get from a bank and provide better loan rates to borrowers from credit cards or personal loans. The company has been in operation since 2007 and boasts that its investors have earned a net annualized return of 9.66%.
The company said on its website that it delivered $12,021,775 in loans to creditworthy borrowers in August alone, the single largest monthly dollar amount ever. The company issued a total of 1,175 loans with an average amount of $10,231. The average interest rate paid was 12.58% and 50% of all loans were used for debt consolidation.
In a statement on Lending Club’s blog, Rob Garcia, Sr Director of Product Strategy, wrote, “Looking at our growth for the last year, we are very proud to have nearly tripled the volume as compared to August 2009, while showing a steady monthly growth pace. Cheers to the Lending Club community of investors and borrowers for making this happen.”
