Lending Club：今年上市的可能性很大

    3月20日，个人贷款公司Lending Club宣布推出小企业贷款平台。Lending Club初步计划推出15,000美元至100,000美元的商业贷款，一年至五年贷款的起始固定利率为5.9%。商业贷款的对象初期仅限机构投资人，但公司CEO雷诺•拉普朗什希望在第一年后开始向零售投资者提供商业贷款。本周早些时候，《财富》杂志（Fortune）就公司新产品采访了拉普郎什。

    推出新产品最终要实现什么目的？

    我们有非常宏大的目标。我们希望将银行系统转变成一个更有竞争力、更便于消费者使用、更透明的市场。如果我们能扩大贷款的用途，同时扩大我们正在服务的人群，我们就能赢得更多客户。未来，我们希望提供各种信贷产品，包括汽车贷款、助学贷款和住房抵押贷款。推出商业贷款是我们的第一次尝试。

    首先，推出小企业贷款的原因是因为目前的市场需求没能得到满足。我们发现，自2008年以来，商业贷款规模一直在缩小。过去两年，大型商业贷款市场有所复苏。但小型商业贷款市场从2008年以来一直在持续萎缩。萎缩的原因并不是需求不足。许多公司老板都没有足够的资金去发展壮大自己的公司。

    这个领域的竞争是否激烈？

    我们考虑进入的这个细分市场竞争并不十分激烈。大家看看商家现金预支付业务就会发现，它的起始利率通常是20%，甚至会上涨到40%至60%。我们的起始利率仅有5.9%。事实上，我们更多时候是为不受银行关注的小企业提供一个银行贷款之外的替代性选择。小公司得不到银行的关注，并不是因为他们的信用不高。考虑到银行的运营成本和结构，银行给小企业提供商业贷款很难做到。银行承销这样一项服务的成本太高，往往得不偿失。

    这项业务瞄准的Lending Club跟目前的投资者是不是同一批人？

    未来会这样。我们第一年只会向我们现有基础中的一部分投资者提供商业贷款。因为我们在最开始没有业绩记录。我们希望在第一年将业绩记录建立起来，之后再向零售投资者提供商业贷款。

    在目前的Lending Club平台上，你认为对贷款的需求和投资需求之间是否达到了良好的平衡？

    On March 20, Lending Club announced plans to launch a small business loan platform. Lending Club business loans will range from $15,000 to $100,000 initially, with fixed interest rates starting at 5.9% for one-to-five-year loans. Initially, these loans will only be available to institutional investors, but CEO Renaud Laplanche aims to open it to retail investors after the first year. Fortune caught up with Laplanche to discuss the company's first new product earlier this week.

    What are you trying to accomplish with your new product?

    We have pretty ambitious goals. We want to transform the banking system into a marketplace that is more competitive, more consumer-friendly, more transparent. We're only going to be more relevant to more people if we address more use cases and expand the population we are addressing. Over time we want to offer all types of credit products including auto loans, student loans and mortgages. This is our first foray into that.

    The reason we wanted small business loans to be our first new product is based on unsatisfied market needs. What we've seen is since 2008, commercial lending has been decreasing. Over the last couple years, the larger commercial loan market has picked up again. If you look at smaller commercial loans, that market has continued to shrink since 2008. It's not for lack of demand. There are a lot of business owners who don't have the capital to grow their businesses.

    Is there a lot of competition in this space?

    The segment we are thinking of addressing is not all that crowded. If you look at the merchant cash advance, very often their starting interest rates is 20% and it goes up from there into the 40s to the 60s…Our rates are going to start at 5.9%. Really, we will be more of an alternative to a banking loan for smaller businesses not getting attention from the banks. It's not that their credit is bad. It's really hard for the banks to make a small business commercial loan work, considering the bank's operating cost and structure. It's very expensive for a bank to underwrite a service, and it's not always worth it.

    Will you be targeting the same investors as Lending Club has so far?

    Over time, we will. For the first year, we will only make these loans available to a portion of our investor base. Initially we won't have a track record. We want to build up our track record for the first year before we make these loans available to retail investors.

    On the current Lending Club platform, are you seeing the right balance in demand for loans vs. demand to invest?