Under the terms of the agreement, Citi will use the firm’s platform to supply up to USD 150 million to “underserved” borrowers that its branch network is unable to reach.
The goal is consistent with Citi’s obligations under the Community Reinvestment Act, a 38-year-old law obliging it to direct a portion of its lending to deprived areas.
Since 2007, the San Francisco-based company — which matches consumers keen to refinance expensive debt with investors looking to lend — has roughly doubled its total loans funded each year to USD 7.6 billion.
Lending Club has previously signed deals with regional lenders such as Union Bank of California and BancAlliance, a national consortium of 200 community banks, allowing them to offer co-branded personal loans to their customers through the Lending Club platform. However, the partnership with Citigroup is its first with a so-called universal bank.
In February of this year, Lending Club also unveiled a new pilot program in partnership with Google, to facilitate financing to eligible Google partners.
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