Lending Club Corp. seems to be facilitating many loans that do not include income verification.
According to a Bank Innovation analysis, nearly a third of Lending Club’s loans outstanding during the first nine months of 2015 are classified as “Not Verified.” That amounts to nearly 82,000 loans. Another 43% of Lending Club loans, or around 126,000 credits, are income “Source Verified,” while 28%, or about 82,000, of LC loan borrowers have had their income “Verified.”
Lending Club has recently made a vast quantity of data available for analysis. The data offers a unique window on marketplace lending and underwriting practices at Lending Club, a leading alternative lender.
A “Not Verified” share of the portfolio of 29% by volume of accounts is high, compared to most consumer lenders. (The “Not Verified” loans make up 22% of the portfolio on a dollar basis.) However, the average debt-to-income ratio on these loans is 18.47 compared to 19.10 for the entire Lending Club portfolio. A DTI in the 18 range is low, but the average income on “Not Verified” loans is about $68,600, compared to approximately $76,000 across the whole portfolio. Higher income tends to imply better credit performance.
Lending Club did not respond to a request for clarification.
A total of 2.8% of the “Not Verified” loans have either been charged off or are delinquent.
Lending Club [ticker: LC] has a market capitalization of $2.8 billion. LC had about $4.4 billion of loans outstanding at the of the 3Q15.