In May of last year, Renaud Laplanche, the head of a fast-growing fintech company that had five months earlier listed on the New York Stock Exchange at a valuation of almost $9 billion, hosted a gaggle of clients and journalists aboard a state-of-the-art trimaran. LendingClub Corp.'s guests were treated to a windswept tour of the Hudson River, as well as LendingClub-branded windbreakers and individual bottles of Kiehl's Since 1851 Inc. sunscreen to protect against the strong spring sun.
A year later and Laplanche and his company have run into an unexpected corporate squall.
San Francisco-based LendingClub on Monday announced the unexpected resignation of Laplanche as CEO and chairman and disclosed internal-control lapses and abuses related to the sale of some of its loans.
Tracy Alloway | Bloomberg