C-level Credit Exec Leaves Lending Club for Affirm

September 21, 2017 | By: Sean Murray

Lending Club’s Chief Credit Officer and Interim General Manager, Sandeep Bhandari, has joined fintech lender Affirm, according to Affirm CEO Max Levchin. Levchin posted the following on LinkedIn:

I am excited to announce and welcome Sandeep Bhandari to Affirm, Inc. as Chief Strategy and Risk Officer (CSRO).

Sandeep joins us from Lending Club where he was the Chief Credit Officer (CCO). Prior to Lending Club, he was at Capital One for many years, where he was Assistant Chief Credit Officer at Capital One Bank (Credit Risk Management) and Venture Partner (Capital One Ventures). Prior to that Sandeep held a variety of roles requiring expertise in strategy, credit risk management, marketing, product development, and underwriting across several lines of business including consumer and small business credit card, auto lending, and mortgage and home equity lending.

We are excited for Sandeep to join us for our next phase of rapid growth and to help us fulfill our mission of delivering honest financial products that improve lives.

The move comes on the heels of Lending Club announcing their “most advanced and predictive credit model ever.” Bhandari was responsible for credit strategy and overall credit risk management at Lending Club and presumably would’ve overseen that.

Talkative investors on the LendAcademy forum were not immediately sold on Lending Club’s new system, however. Some users bemoaned that Lending Club is ignoring common sense in favor of data. In one instance, the CEO of PeerCube referenced an interest rate anomaly alleged to be discovered in Lending Club’s pricing as “Data-driven but knowledge-unaware.”

Affirm and Lending Club differ. Whereas Lending Club targets the credit card refinancing market, Affirm helps consumers finance purchases. Last month, Affirm and Walmart were reportedly in talks to offer financing to consumers.

Last modified: September 21, 2017