With losses mounting, Lending Club asks for patience

Lending Club has capped a turbulent second quarter by cutting 179 jobs and announcing the departure of CFO Carrie Dolan. The tarnished online lender has been fighting an uphill battle to regain investor trust; this past spring, it fired founder Renaud Laplanche as CEO after discovering that he had approved doctoring the dates on a packet of loans being sold to a third-party investor.

Operating revenue for the second quarter fell to $102.4 million, a drop of $49.6 million since the first quarter of the year and lower than estimates of $110-$125 million. Shares were down 3.8% in after-hours trading. 

“The full scale return of investors may take time,” the company said in a statement. Last year, Lending Club reported a net loss of $4.1 million for the second quarter. This year: $81.4 million. AH