Renaud Laplanche, CEO and Founder of Lending Club said regarding the launch, "Now investors have more choice for their retirement accounts beyond traditional asset classes."

EntrustCAMA will serve as the administrator for the accounts. Check out the full press release which includes links about the program. Clearly there are a lot of pros and cons about using your retirement account in this manner and the best advice I could give you is to speak to someone who fully understands the retirement account market and can guide you and your monies.

Lending Club has also announced Pamela Kramer as the company's first CMO. Pamela has spent the last two decades in the online financial space.

Interestingly enough, p2p lending news caught a twitter message from LucHardy, president of Sagax, a venture capital firm. The message, posted on Tuesday, noted the funding amount but was quickly deleted.

p2p lending news has another post that is well worth reading which has a lengthy breakdown of the loans that Lending Club is currently funding. Lots of charts and graphs along with their analysis on the lending. They note that 24% of the loans Lending Club makes come from them versus the p2p community. I can't comment on this as it's not my area of expertise but the information came from the SEC filings that Lending Club is required to make.

Check out all of our social lending coverage including our interview with Renaud.

During this time Prosper will not accept any new loans but will continue to service the loans that have already been completed. Lending Club just completed this process which took about six months to complete.

I've also received some loan numbers from Lending Club on the 10-day period since the quiet period completion. They have signed up 1,072 new lenders and in total have transferred just under $2 million to their Lending Club account. These numbers are higher than before the quiet period began earlier this year.

If you are new to social lending, our three-part social lending series will get you up-to-speed.

Lending Club notes that the average interest rates for a person with good credit will be 12%. They are also launching LendingMatch which provides lenders with loan information to create a well diversified portfolio. Loans becomes notes registered with the SEC and Lending Club is also launching a secondary P2P loan market.

Lending Club is pushing the concept of "people lending to people" -- this concept online is called social lending or social finance. To-date Lending Club has originated more than 2,000 loans with a value of over $19 million.

With the current economic situation, will more people turn to P2P lending if denied by their bank or financial institution. Something tells me that today's announcement from Lending Club comes at the perfect time. Check out my interview with Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche.

Update: Top Dog Ted has a post regarding the mistakes listed below. Ted discusses hiring a friend and the points to consider.

Here's the 7 things:

1. I Managed People like Michael Scott from “The Office”
2. I Hired My Friends
3. I Budgeted Like Britney Spears: Terribly
4. I Leased A Fancy Office While My Large Basement Went Unused
5. I Raised Money Before I Had Customers
6. I Mixed Business with Pleasure
7. I Assumed Everything Would Go According to Plan

I will get working on the next startup tips ebook. If you would like to participate, send me a note.

DoughRoller notes, "In its Amended S-1, LendingClub disclosed that under a new formula, it will also use several other credit markers in calculating interest rates. Specifically, LendingClub will factor in a borrower’s number of open accounts, the number of credit inquiries in the last six months, how much of a borrower’s available credit is used up, and length of credit history." Previously Lending Club used only an applicant's FICO score, debt-to-income (DTI) ratio, and amount borrowed. This new set of loan criteria should provide a more balanced picture of the applicant for potential lenders. Many times an applicant will apply for a large number of credit cards at once but they won't show up as tradelines for several months. By viewing current inquiries, a lender can get an idea if the borrower has been out grabbing lots of new credit.

We will continue to actively monitor the social lending space. Considering the current financial picture, social lending could become even more active than it is currently.

If you are new to the concept of peer-to-peer lending, check out our social lending series. Also check out our exclusive interview with Lending Club CEO Renaud Laplanche.

Below is the announcement that Lending Club is making today regarding their moving forward. Here's my simple take - lenders will buy "notes" and then use the funds from those notes to provide loans to Lending Club members. Since this information is very specific, I've decided to post the entire press release below. It's important to note that Lending Club is still in a quiet period until the filing is effective.

In contrast, social lending competitor Zopa is using insured CDs with their loan products.

Lending Club Files Registration Statement with the SEC

SUNNYVALE, CA - June 20, 2008 – Lending Club announced today that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Securities Act of 1933 relating to its social lending platform.

The registration statement seeks to register the offer and sale of up to $600,000,000 in Member Payment Dependent Notes to be issued by Lending Club in a continuous offering following the effective date of the registration statement. The Notes will be issued in series with each series of Notes corresponding to a single consumer loan to a borrower member. Lender members will direct Lending Club to apply the proceeds Lending Club receives from the sale of each series of Notes to fund a particular consumer loan selected by the lender member and originated through the Lending Club platform.

A series of Notes will be issued only if and when the corresponding member loan closes and is funded. Lending Club will have an obligation to make payments of principal and interest on the Notes only to the extent that Lending Club receives payments on the corresponding member loan. The terms of the Notes, including interest rate and initial maturity, will correspond to the terms of the corresponding member loans but will reflect a four business day lag on payment dates and maturity to allow the platform to confirm payments received on the corresponding member loan.

Lending Club will offer the Notes only through its website directly to lender members.

A registration statement relating to these securities has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but it has not yet become effective. Copies of the Lending Club registration statement can be accessed on the SEC website: http://www.sec.gov/. These securities may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities law of any such state.

About Lending Club (TM)

LendingClub.com is a social lending network headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA.

Earlier today we wrote

I've also noticed some commentary from Lending Club lenders across the net. Here are a couple:

• Scott notes that Lending Club is "no longer peer-to-peer lending"
• Jason Crews is annoyed that he wasn't informed sooner so he could add more funds to his account to allow for more loans

We will continue to monitor the status and report updates as they become available.

Could the company be working towards an IPO? My guess is not and that this is a standard process to protect Lending Club as they grow. The term "quiet period" is being used and we hear this period could last as long as three months. I have an email into Lending Club to try to get more details. In any event, we will keep you informed as the situation progresses.

Important Information

Lending Club has started a process to register, with the appropriate securities authorities, promissory notes that may be offered and sold to lenders through our site in the future. Until we complete the registration process, we will not accept new lender registrations or allow new commitments from existing lenders. We will continue to service all previously funded loans during this period, and lenders will be able to access their accounts, monitor their portfolios, and withdraw available funds without changes.

The borrowing side of our site will remain generally unaffected by this registration process; borrowers can continue to apply for loans and new loans posted after April 7, 2008, will be funded and held only by Lending Club.

Until the registration process is completed, the company will undergo a quiet period and will not be able to respond to press and other inquiries about Lending Club or the registration process during that time.

From Jim's analysis, "In Q1, Prosper and Lending Club combined for more than $30 million in originations, up $10.7 million (55%) compared to about $20 million in Q1 2007." Jim goes on to note that for the lower risk loans, LendingClub actually passed Prosper in total volume.

If the economy continues to sour, my guess is that loan applications at Zopa, Prosper and LendingClub will increase dramatically.

On the front pocket area, the shirt says: LendingClub and on the back it says: We are all bankers and the URL.

If you want one, shoot over your details but make sure you can fit into a L-sized shirt. And check out all of our social lending coverage including Zopa and Prosper.

Lending Club

Lending Club is also releasing some loan data today:

• Lenders have earned an average 12.2 percent annualized return after fees and losses
• Defaults on the loans have remained under one percent (allen's note: most likely because they require a 640 fico.)
• Late payments are below 0.25%
• 489 approved loans in the six-month period
• Average rates vary from 7.82% to 17.37%

Zopa

Here are the features they claim will be different than the U.K. version:

Looks familiar, right? Lots of real people taking money out and putting money in. But Zopa in the USA will be very different, too. Here are just some of the ways we'll be different from the sites that exist today:

• No risk for investors.
  Your funds will be federally insured. No more worrying about whether your borrowers will pay your loan back.
• Pick who you want to help.
  Investors will choose exactly who they want to help.
• Set your rate.
  Investors will choose how much they want to earn, up to a ceiling.
• No waiting.
  Borrowers will get their loans immediately upon approval.
• Lower your monthly payment.
  Borrowers can actually reduce their loan payments after they've borrowed. They'll do that using rich profiles...

How will we do all this? By using some very cool technology and a terrific partnership with leading credit unions.

I've highlighted the option that could be "game-changing" for the social finance and social lending movement. From what I gather, neither competitor Prosper nor Lending Club provide any sort of federal insurance for the loans created on the respective site. Isn't a loan all about risk? I have no further details at this point but I do have a mail into Zopa to try to learn more.

We've written extensively on social finance and social lending. Our 3-part series on social lending is a great place to start if you are new to the area. I remain confident that social lending will continue to grow in 2008.

LendingClub

Distribution rarely hurts and LendingClub does a good job of staying in the spotlight by keeping up with the latest social offerings. Everyone on to the Google bus!

Press release quote, “Lending Club gives people the opportunity to leverage their existing social-network relationships at the time they really need them, whether it’s to finance a new business opportunity or profit from attractive investments,” said Renaud Laplanche, founder and CEO of Lending Club. “We’re taking the lead by building the first affinity-based social finance application across all the Google OpenSocial network partners and empowering people to leverage their existing networks online to bypass the banks and get better rates by borrowing and lending directly within communities they trust.”

Check out our previous LendingClub coverage along with our interview with CEO Renaud Laplanche.

So what happens today when a person gets stiffed on a social finance site such as Prosper, Zopa or Lending Club? You guessed it - they blog about it! And if the blog is popular, it will be worse than a bad check posted on a wall. (of course if the person is a scammer, they won't care)

Yesterday Andy Swan posted about just such a deadbeat. He notes:

I loaned the guy $500 through Prosper. Apparently he is involved in some type of credit crunch situation. Probably some type of adjustable rate mortgage that just rolled over to 24% APR on his delinquent ass.

Now he’s stiffing me and everyone else on Prosper that fell for his enthusiasm and sparkling smile. I just hope he’s driving around in a sweet ride with a hot girl and the money’s not rotting away in some casino coffers right now.

In hindsight, the “endorsements” from his friends should have been a tip off.

You can click over to the profile and photo of the man called "Slim123". I am confident we will see more of public humiliation payment tactics as social finance and social lending explodes.

For more information about social lending and social finance, check out our 3-part series.