Lending Club hires PayPal head of credit to lead it into new sectors

Lending Club is hiring Steve Allocca PayPal global head of credit as its president as the lender continues to move away from the scandal that overturned its fortunes last year.

The company says Allocca will lead its efforts to deliver credit to more customers across its expanding range of product categories.

This expansion into new lending categories follows a tough year for the firm that saw it fall from favour with the institutional investors it sells its personal loan products too.

Lending Club suffered a scandal last year that saw former CEO Renaud Laplanche forced out for failing to disclose a conflict of interest connected to a fund he encouraged Lending Club to buy an interest in.

Since then the company has seen numerous governance changes including the appointment of Thomas Casey as CFO.

The California-based lender managed to narrow its losses in Q1 17 to $30m and saw $1.906m in loan originations. Part of Allocca duty will be to increase originations by taking the company into new categories.

During his time at PayPal he oversaw the company expansion into business lending with PayPal Working Capital.

The division has lent $3bn to more than 115,000 businesses around the world since launching in September 2013.

Lending Club CEO Scott Sanborn commented on the new hire: “Steve’s experience not only ranges from startup to big bank, but also across a broad range of credit products, from those we lead, like personal loans, to those we’ve just launched, like auto, and beyond.

?Steve joins at an incredible moment we have strong demand from investors, a customer base of nearly two million borrowers, a powerful brand, an incredible technology platform, and much of the $3.5 trillion US consumer loan market remains untouched by online lending platforms.”

Copyright ? 2017 FINTECH GLOBAL

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