I would say that Prosper.com also fits the description you posted: “lenders could not make an accurate risk assessment of the investments they were making. This is a difficult thing to do for individual borrowers even when you have access to their credit report — and LendingClub was only providing a few metrics and a general credit score range.”

So I must assume that there is some other difficulty. I am not sure exactly what it is, but you are certainly right that it must have been one nasty visit. I hope LC is back soon.

Reading between the lines, it sounds like the new model will be to allow lenders to purchase shares in a general class of loans (e.g., “buy 36 shares of the D3 class”), with interest payments being paid as dividends. If a borrower defaults, the result will be reflected in the dividend.

At least, that’s my speculation on the situation. This assumes LendingClub officials are not intentionally trying to spook lenders and knew this announcement would cause concern but had little choice in the matter. I’m not affiliated with LendingClub (except for the $100 I put in as a lender but missed the deadline), nor am I an investment professional.