“We’re a technology firm -- we’re a platform,” Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein said in an interview on Bloomberg TV in June.
While online marketplace lenders once set out to disrupt traditional banking, many of them are now cooperating with Wall Street by teaming with banks, selling their loans to large institutional investors or helping to bundle them into securitized bonds. Blackstone Group LP, the world’s biggest manager of alternative assets, has also announced plans to make loans to individuals and small businesses.