Lending Club Funded $2.3B in Q1, Brushing Off FTC Suit

Lending Club (NYSE: LC) originated $2.31 billion worth of loans in Q1 this year, according to the company’s earnings report released this afternoon. This is an 18% increase in originations over last year’s Q1, yet it is a decrease of 5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2017.   

Lending Club has been embroiled in legal problems lately. The company was sued by the Federal Trade Commission at the end of April for misleading marketing tactics. Additionally, according to the earnings report, Lending Club settled a class action lawsuit for $77.25 million during the first quarter of 2018.

The Q&A session following Lending Club’s Q1 2018 conference call today was replete with questions from analysts regarding the FTC lawsuit and how it might be affecting Lending Club’s business. CEO Scott Sanborn and other executives on the conference call maintained that the company’s marketing and disclosure practices are in compliance and that the FTC’s lawsuit has not had a negative impact.

“We’re not seeing a change in demand or an increase in complaints,” one of the executives said.

“We’re always making changes, but nothing specifically in response to [the FTC lawsuit,]” another said.

The San Francisco-based peer-to-peer lender was founded in 2007 and went public in December 2014.  

Todd Stone was a reporter for deBanked.