Key Takeaways
- Fintech pioneer LendingClub is changing its name to Happen Bank this summer as part of a major rebranding effort.
- The rebranding aims to better reflect the company’s role as a digital bank that offers a range of products beyond loans.
- The bank has launched two new deposit accounts in the last two years.
Not long after he was hired as chief marketing officer at LendingClub in 2010, Scott Sanborn made a relatively bold suggestion to the fledgling fintech company’s then-CEO.
“I said, ‘I don’t think LendingClub is the right name,'” Sanborn says. “It was inherently limiting.”
Sixteen years later, as Sanborn celebrates a decade in the company’s CEO chair, he’s finally changing the name.
LendingClub is in the midst of a major rebrand, with plans to become Happen Bank this summer. One of the pioneers of the peer-to-peer lending wave two decades ago, the San Francisco-based fintech company has benefitted from several well-timed, forward-thinking shifts. It’s hoping this move is the latest to pay off.
From Lending Startup to Digital Bank
Founded in 2006 as one of the first peer-to-peer lenders, LendingClub provided a platform where borrowers could create loan listings and retail investors could then choose which they wanted to invest in. The business model was well-positioned for the financial crisis, which created a surge in demand for alternative lending sources as traditional banks cut back on credit.
LendingClub grew to be the largest peer-to-peer lender and was the first to go public, with a blockbuster initial public offering in 2014 that saw shares rise 56% on its first day of trading.
Its model shifted over time, and LendingClub made another splash in 2021 when it became the first fintech company to buy a bank, purchasing Boston-based Radius Bank. That move allowed LendingClub to add deposit accounts such as checking and savings to its product lineup. Following the announcement of the purchase, the company shut down its peer-to-peer lending platform.
“They are kind of the ‘OG’ fintech lending platform,” says Michael Imerman, an assistant professor of teaching in the finance area at the Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, and co-author of the book “The Economics of FinTech.”
Imerman says the bank purchase in particular set off a major shift in the industry.
“Over the past five years or so, we’ve seen this big trend of fintech lenders get a bank charter one way or another and actually expand their business model beyond just loans and into other banking products,” he says.
The bank has more than 5 million members and about $11.5 billion in assets.
Time for a Change
As LendingClub offered deposit accounts and other banking services alongside its lending products, the name was becoming a problem.
The bank’s interviews with hundreds of current and prospective customers revealed that neither seemed to consider the name an accurate indication of what the bank does. Many prospective customers assumed the company still only provided loans.
Sanborn says LendingClub officials were also concerned that current checking and savings customers would feel uneasy with the word “lending” on their debit cards, suggesting perhaps that this was money they were borrowing rather than their own savings. Its debit cards are now adorned with its logo, but not the name.
He says the company wanted to establish itself as a bank and roll out new products such as a high-yield savings account and cash back checking before initiating the rebranding process.
“It all fit like a glove,” says Sanborn. “We’re already in this place; we just have a name that is not giving us enough permission to play in this place.”
In the meantime, competitors such as SoFi, which followed a similar path from peer-to-peer lender to full-service bank, have perhaps taken larger steps to becoming household names.
“SoFi in recent years has made incredible strides in name recognition with the mainstream,” says Imerman, noting the company’s Los Angeles-area NFL stadium naming rights deal as well as heavy advertising. “LendingClub provides many of the same products and services as SoFi, but I don’t think they are associated in consumers’ minds as more than just loans, and I think that’s part of the rebranding here. They want the public to know that they do the same thing.”
LendingClub will have a chance to put the new Happen Bank logo on a visible piece of real estate. The company just moved its headquarters into a 21-story high-rise that it purchased in San Francisco’s downtown Financial District for $74.5 million.
Targeting the ‘Motivated Middle’
The Happen Bank name stems from LendingClub’s efforts to reach a specific type of customer the bank refers to as the “motivated middle.” Sanborn says this group represents about a third of the U.S. population, but nearly half of the credit wallet.
“These customers are high-income, have strong credit, but they’re not rich,” says Sanborn. “What it means is they can afford nice things, but they need credit to do it. They’re more likely than average to have every form of credit: student loan, auto loan, credit card debt, mortgage. They earn enough money to be able to get the nice car, but not enough money to be able to pay cash.”
The idea, he says, is that Happen Bank is an institution that “clears the way for people going places.”
The challenge for LendingClub is to convince customers of more traditional banks that switching to a digital bank will be worth the effort, both in the interest they can earn on savings and the rate they’ll get on loans, Sanborn says. He says consumers often select their bank because it has a branch nearby, and then they stay with that bank for years.
“One of the key things we’re trying to overcome is inertia,” says Sanborn, noting that LendingClub’s high-yield savings account pays 4% APY, while many big banks pay almost zero interest. “We will literally pay you 400 times as much money if you have savings. That’s a side hustle. That’s real money you’re going to get.”
What LendingClub Offers, and What’s Coming Next
LendingClub has rolled out a pair of new deposit accounts in the past two years, and each is structured to reward customers for certain banking activity.
- LevelUp Savings. Launched in 2024, this high-yield savings account rewards customers with a higher interest rate (4% annual percentage yield as of May 13, 2026) if they deposit at least $250 into the account each month. There’s no minimum balance required and no monthly fee, and the account comes with an ATM card. The bank doesn’t charge ATM fees and offers unlimited rebates for fees charged by an ATM owner.
- LevelUp Checking. The most recent addition, this checking account pays 1% cash back on debit card purchases in certain essential categories such as groceries and gas. It also gives you 2% cash back for on-time personal loan payments made from the account, which is one reason why about 60% of checking customers also have loans with the bank. There’s no minimum balance requirement, although you must have a balance of at least $2,500 to also earn 1% APY with the account. It has no monthly fees.
Of course, the bank also offers a variety of loan products, from personal loans to auto refinances. LendingClub added a home improvement financing product in late 2025, and Sanborn says there are plans to roll out a home equity loan next year.
