Lending Club

The prime consumer loans backing the $330M CLUB Credit Trust 2017-P2 transaction include a greater percentage of higher-FICO borrowers.

The British banking giant has been testing its new online lending platform with a handful of its U.S. customers and plans to roll it out in full force next year. It's all part of a broader effort to expand its U.S. consumer business beyond credit cards.

Consumers who have borrowed from online lenders owe more and have lower credit scores than similarly situated consumers who have not used online lenders, according to a study released Thursday by the Cleveland Fed. The provocative findings seem likely to spark intense debate.

The San Francisco firm is the latest U.S. lender to tighten credit standards amid concerns that consumers are shouldering too much debt.

The San Francisco-based lender still posted losses in its portfolio, although those declined considerably from the year-ago period.

For the first time, the marketplace lender is using its own balance sheet: It's contributing 27.66% of the collateral. The rest comes from three third-party investors.

The online consumer lender reported a net loss of $25.4 million, bringing its red ink in the five most recent quarterly reports to more than $200 million.

Sponsoring securitizations of the loans funded on its platform will give LendingClub more control over its reputation in the market and make it less beholden to direct loan buyers.