Introduction
Happen Bank is the current name of the company most readers will know as LendingClub, a digital marketplace bank offering personal loans, auto refinancing, patient financing, and deposit accounts. Founded in 2006 by Renaud Laplanche as an early peer-to-peer lending marketplace, the company completed the largest U.S. tech IPO of 2014, survived a 2016 leadership scandal, and in 2021 became the first American fintech company to acquire a bank outright.
On June 22, 2026, the parent company formally changed its legal name from LendingClub Corporation to Happen, Inc., renamed its banking subsidiary from LendingClub Bank to Happen Bank, and moved its stock listing from the NYSE to the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the new ticker HAPN, according to the company’s own SEC filing and press release. Brel retains the historical slug for this profile for URL continuity while reflecting the company’s current legal and brand name.
What the company does
Happen Bank operates a digital-first bank built around personal loans (frequently used for credit-card refinancing and debt consolidation), automotive refinancing, a patient-financing business for healthcare providers, and consumer deposit accounts, all distributed through Happen Bank, National Association, its wholly owned banking subsidiary. The company also continues to sell a portion of loan originations to institutional investors through its marketplace model, a structure that predates its 2021 bank acquisition.
Who it serves
Happen Bank’s own materials describe its target customer as the “Motivated Middle” — high-FICO, high-income, digitally savvy consumers actively managing their finances — who borrow, save, and bank through the platform, alongside institutional investors who purchase loans originated on the platform. The company states it serves more than five million members as of its 2026 rebrand announcement.
Company background
Renaud Laplanche founded LendingClub in San Francisco in 2006. The company completed its initial public offering on the NYSE in December 2014, at the time the largest U.S. technology IPO of the year, reaching an early valuation of roughly $8.5 billion according to contemporaneous reporting. Laplanche departed as CEO in 2016 amid a controversy over loan-sale practices; Scott Sanborn, who remains CEO through the 2026 rebrand, later took over leadership. In February 2020, LendingClub announced an agreement to acquire Radius Bancorp and its Boston-based digital bank subsidiary, Radius Bank, for $185 million in cash and stock; the deal closed on February 1, 2021, making LendingClub the first U.S. fintech company to acquire a bank and forming LendingClub Bank, National Association. On June 22, 2026, the company completed a corporate rebrand: LendingClub Corporation became Happen, Inc., LendingClub Bank became Happen Bank, National Association, and trading moved from the NYSE (ticker LC) to the Nasdaq Global Select Market (ticker HAPN), per the company’s Form 8-K filed with the SEC. The company has stated that existing customer accounts, login credentials, routing numbers, and products were unaffected by the rebrand.
Product and AI capabilities
Like other AI-in-finance lenders profiled by Brel, Happen Bank (as LendingClub) has long applied statistical and machine-learning models to credit-risk assessment for personal and auto-refinance loans, informing both the interest rates offered to borrowers and the loans distributed to institutional investors. Since acquiring a bank charter in 2021, the company has increasingly funded originations through its own deposit base rather than relying solely on marketplace investors, which changes the balance-sheet mechanics around its underwriting models but not their basic function of scoring individual borrower risk.
Key developments
LendingClub was founded in 2006 and went public on the NYSE in December 2014. Following the departure of founder Renaud Laplanche in 2016, the company pursued a bank charter, announcing its acquisition of Radius Bancorp in February 2020 and completing the deal on February 1, 2021 to form LendingClub Bank. On June 22, 2026, the company executed a full corporate and brand rebrand to Happen, Inc. and Happen Bank, transferring its stock listing to the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker HAPN.
Why it matters
Happen Bank’s 2021 transition from a pure marketplace lender to a chartered bank is a useful reference point for how AI-driven consumer lenders can change their funding model — moving from investor-funded loans to deposit-funded loans — without necessarily changing the underlying credit models borrowers experience. The 2026 name change is a reminder that a company’s public identity and ticker symbol can shift substantially even when its regulatory charter, underwriting technology, and customer base carry over, which matters for readers tracking corporate history across sources that may still use the older LendingClub name.
Sector context
Happen Bank sits within Brel’s AI in finance coverage as a direct-to-consumer digital bank and lender, distinct from underwriting-technology vendors such as Zest AI and from bank-facing identity orchestration platforms such as Alloy, whose customers have reportedly included LendingClub itself in the past. Its status as a chartered, deposit-taking bank rather than a pure marketplace lender also sets it apart from lending marketplaces such as Upstart that continue to rely on partner banks to hold loans on regulated balance sheets.
Sources and references
This profile is based on the company’s SEC Form 8-K disclosing its June 2026 name and listing change, its official press release announcing the Happen Bank brand, and LendingClub’s own 2021 announcement of the completed Radius Bancorp acquisition.
- SEC Form 8-K — Happen, Inc. name and listing change (2026)
- PR Newswire (Happen, Inc.) — “LendingClub Officially Becomes Happen Bank” (2026)
- LendingClub Investor Relations — Radius Bancorp acquisition close (2021)