While it has been standard practice for officers at the online Lending Club to verify a borrower’s income and run a credit check before approving loans, these days they also check out any public information about an applicant on Internet social websites.
“If I go on Facebook or Twitter and see information that doesn’t match, it could indicate something is wrong,” said Rob Garcia, senior director of product strategy at Lending Club, a peer-to-peer lending network based in Redwood City, Calif.
Financial institutions have become more careful about whom they loan money to and some are finding creative ways to take advantage of the growing popularity of social networking websites and the wealth of personal data they provide.
Full story: Lenders using Facebook, Twitter to gather borrower information