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GS executives are reigning in its loan origination target for 2019 citing the current state of the market as the Federal Reserve continues to raise rates, just as the personal loans are growing as fast as ever with 19.2m outstanding versus 16.9m a year ago. Hallum analyst Brad Berning agued in a research report that the real reason for the pullback is Marcus’ annualized loss rate of 5% on its personal loans is one percentage point higher than rivals Discover and Lending Club.
Thanks in part to the growth of lending fintechs, the popularity of unsecured personal loans has been surging over the course of the past few years. Take the first quarter of 2018 as one example. According to TransUnion, the credit-scoring company, the number of outstanding personal loans in the first three months of the year rose to 19.2 million. That compares to 16.9 million a year ago. Meanwhile, the total loan balances reached $120 billion, up from $102 billion in the first quarter of 2017.
