LendingClub Corporation (NYSE:LC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Bill Ryan: Okay. And just one follow up on the provision, $42 million approximately for the quarter. Going back to Q3, I believe there was a $10 million adjustment for 2021, $10 million for 2022. Looking at it, there’s obviously some adjustments in the current quarter, it looks like. But I think you kind of articulated they were a little bit lower than what they were last period. But was there something for 2023 as well, based on your prepared remarks?

Drew LaBenne: A little bit of true up in 2023 as well as we were coming out of the quarter, but I would say pretty modest across the quarters and where we ended up. And on the ‘23 vintage on Page 16, we obviously gave the lifetime loss, our current estimate of the lifetime losses, which I’ll just say it again. It’s when you look at the ‘22 vintage, you see 8.9%. When you look at the ‘23 vintage, you also see 8.9%. But there is a lot more qualitative that is contained in the ‘23 vintage, given it has a longer remaining life than the ‘22 vintage.

Bill Ryan: Okay. Thanks for taking my questions.

Operator: Our next question comes from Reggie Smith with JP Morgan. Please proceed.

Reggie Smith: Hey, guys. Thanks for taking the question. I guess kind of follow up on the last point. I was curious how the ‘23 vintage has performed, I guess, to date and how does that compare to kind of 22? Is it better or does it sound like you factored in a little heavier kind of a macro overlay? And so I’m just curious, if you’re actually seeing better performance thus far and you just kind of [indiscernible] looking ahead?

Scott Sanborn: Yeah. So Reggie, you can at least see one of the new slides we put together in the material. I think it’s Page 8, gives a view into the nine-month on book, at which point we have a pretty good sense of how a vintage is going to perform and gives you the quarterly view of all of our vintages. So what you see is, we’re seeing kind of stable performance at long-term book nine, but the ‘23 vintage is coming with a higher coupon. So overall, we feel pretty good about that. And as Drew just mentioned, we expect the kind of model output, if you would, ex-qualitative overlay for the ‘23 vintage would have a lower lifetime loss, but we do have qualitative reserves on top of that, given there’s just more time left to go and there’s more uncertainty. We can debate where unemployment is going, but it’s likely not staying where it is today. So that’s kind of factored into those reserves.

Reggie Smith: Understood. And then if I could sneak two more in. One, just where losses came in, I guess, versus your own internal expectations for the quarter. And then a follow-up, too. I think you guys talked about two different programs, like a suite program for personal loans like, a top-up. Like, how soon could those be rolled out and what does that look like in terms of, I guess appetite for those products look at that?

Scott Sanborn: Yeah. I’ll maybe take the first one, which is top-up. So that is, I’ll explain again the feature. It’s basically we have, as we’ve stated before, roughly half of our volume comes from repeat members, a subset of those members have paid off their first loan and are back for second. And some, maybe we initially approved for a certain amount, they took less, or since they got their first loan, they had some life event happen, whatever it is, and need additional capital. And kind of prior to this feature called top-up, that would effectively be a second loan with a second payment date and different pricing across the two loans, all the rest. All this is to the consumer. It just feels like – it feels almost like I’m drawing down on the same line.

I keep one loan, one payment date, have a single rate. So that’s live now. We’re basically kind of testing and working our way through the experience, but we know this is a feature that people are going to appreciate because we know how they use the product. So, we expect that this will be kind of an important value add to the kind of mix today. It comes at a similar kind of profile and all that for us. But for the customer, there’s a real convenience benefit here. On CleanSweep, that is effectively it will behave to the consumer like an installment line. What’s different about it is they know the offer is there waiting for them. So as we’re moving to, as we mentioned on the call, more mobile engagement and more interaction, the ability to kind of, if you fast forward for us, call it, towards the end of this year when we’re able to show you, here’s your credit card debt, looks like you’ve built some up, you’ve got an open offer for you waiting to sweep that credit card balance into what will feel like an installment loan.

That’s how all those things will come together. So right now we’re just again it’s a revolving platform that’s new to us so that was a big lift to put that in. And the credit will work differently because it’s an open line that’s permanently available. So we’re going to be running that at pretty low volumes for most of this year to get ready to, so that when the integrated experience is available, this will be part of that full experience and this revolve product has other, our ability to work in our revolve platform will have other future product applications for us.

Drew LaBenne: Hey, Reggie. You’d also asked about losses and how they came in at the beginning and it’s net charge-offs came in pretty much where we expected them to come in in the period. We did have a little more provision on some of the earlier ventures as we discussed, but the charge-offs are pretty much where we expected them.

Reggie Smith: Perfect. Thank you, guys.

Operator: Our next question comes from David Chiaverini with Wedbush Securities. Please proceed.

David Chiaverini: Hi. Thanks for taking the question. So the first one, I think I heard you say that the first quarter guidance is representative of what to expect for the remainder of the year? I guess, first can you confirm that and then the follow-up is, does that contemplate relief on the capital ratio front?

Scott Sanborn: Yeah. So David, what we meant by that comment was that the first quarter guidance, we believe we can maintain roughly those same ranges going through the rest of the year if the environment doesn’t change, right? No negative economic backdrop, no changes in the interest rate environment. So it’s more of a, we believe we’ve stabilized from here where PPNR and originations should be without some of the other external factors that could benefit us or harm us in one direction or the other. So I wouldn’t take it as full year guidance. It’s more of just a Q1 levels are sustainable going forward without any major changes.

David Chiaverini: Got it. So there could be a benefit, if you do get relief on the capital front.

Scott Sanborn: And then on the capital front, yes. I think if we exit the operating agreement, then we will have more latitude to dictate where our capital level should run at. I wouldn’t expect us to come sprinting out of the gate in a wild fashion, but certainly the constraints that were there before are not the constraints now.

David Chiaverini: Got it. I’ll ask a similar question on the interest rate backdrop. If we do get, say, six Fed cuts versus a couple Fed cuts? In what environment does LendingClub perform better in?