Equity guru Jim Cramer invited one of the leading innovators in the peer to peer, or marketplace lending, space to swing by his Mad Money studio this week. Renaud Laplanche, CEO and founder of Lending Club (NYSE:LC), the largest peer to peer lender in the US, stopped by after a rousing speech at the Lendit conference in Manhattan. Cramer actually admits he was behind the curve as he was not “originally on board with the company’s business model”. Cramer starts out questioning Renaud about fraud and credit risk – something that is actually quite low on the platform. Renaud explains they do a ton of verification and review to stop the fraudsters – data and borrower validation is the key. Cramer, a shareholder in Wells Fargo, queries Renaud as to why Lending Club is better. Renaud points to the obvious that it is all about cost. Originating loans online is exponentially less expensive than the brick & mortar, talk to a loan officer days of past (or soon to be). Efficiency is the variable that assures P2P lending to be the future and traditional banks a chapter in history. Cramer asks if it is so good why doesn’t Blackstone or Amazon offer a similar service. Good question. Maybe they are just extremely late to the game. One hundred percent growth, year over year, speaks volumes.
