Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the LendingClub Corporation Annual Meeting. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Hans Morris. Please go ahead.
Good morning, or good afternoon for those of you on the East Coast. I'm Hans Morris. I'm the chairman of LendingClub's Board of Directors. I'd like to welcome all of you to our virtual-only 2020 annual meeting of stockholders, and I will now call the meeting to order. We have with us today from our management team, Scott Sanborn, our CEO, Tom Casey, our CFO, and Brandon Pace, our Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, and Mr. Pace will serve as the secretary for this meeting. We also have all of our board members here: Susan Athey, Dan Ciporin, Ken Denman, Tim Mayopoulos, Patty McCord, Simon Williams, and Michael Zeisser. Joining us as well is Kirby Rattenbury, who is representing our independent auditor, Deloitte & Touche. On the phone, Jim Alden from American Election Services has been appointed the inspector of elections by the Board of Directors.
The COVID-19 pandemic has obviously had a profound impact on our business and the broader economy. Under the leadership of Scott Sanborn, we have undertaken very significant initiatives to support our borrowers, balance supply-demand on the platform, and better position ourselves to navigate through the current economic environment. Our strategy is to support our marketplace model with a bank charter. We believe we will be both strategically and financially creative to the company. We also took a big step toward this goal with our merger agreement to acquire Radius Bancorp, a leading online bank with a national footprint and an award-winning mobile banking experience. We have also undertaken measures to keep our employees safe, including closing our physical workplaces, instituting additional paid leave policies, and leveraging technology to enable our employees to continue to serve our customers from their homes.
We thank you, our stockholders, for your belief in LendingClub's mission and business. Wish you and your families the very best during this very challenging time. As part of our board refreshment process in the past year, we added Michael Zeisser to ensure we have appropriate expertise and range of skills to help guide us going forward. With that, I'd like—it's time for us to conduct the formal business that's on our agenda for today's meeting. Once we've gone through that, the meeting will adjourn, and Scott Sanborn will give us a brief overview of the business. I'll now turn the meeting over to our Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Brandon Pace.
Thank you, Hans. I'd like to welcome everyone to our 2020 annual meeting for our stockholders. We're pleased to be able to offer this meeting in a virtual format. We believe this format makes our meeting more accessible to all of you, to our stockholders, without some of the burdens associated with travel and with attendance at the meeting. We believe that is especially important in this critical and unusual environment. In fairness to all of our stockholders participating in the meeting today, and in the interest of having an informative, orderly, and constructive meeting, the following procedures will apply. The business of the meeting will follow the order shown on the agenda, which has been posted on the annual meeting website at virtualshareholdermeeting.com.
If you have previously voted by returning a proxy to us, or voted by phone, or voted through the internet, your vote stands, and you don't need to do anything at this time. However, if you wish to revoke your proxy or change your vote, you may do so by voting today through the annual meeting website. To be entitled to vote, you must have been a shareholder of record of our common stock on April 3, 2020. Please note that under the advance notice provisions of our bylaws, proposals cannot be properly brought before this annual meeting unless they were previously submitted in accordance with the required procedures. Since we have received no previous proposals from stockholders, no additional proposals beyond what is already on the agenda will be submitted or may be submitted for consideration at this meeting.
As the secretary for the meeting, if there are questions regarding the conduct of the meeting as we proceed, it is my responsibility to make sure the necessary determinations with respect to the procedures to be followed during the meeting. Thank you for your cooperation and for your participation. Let me again remind all of our stockholders participating in this meeting that if you have already sent in your proxy or voted by phone or through the internet, there is no need to cast a vote now unless you want to revoke your proxy or change your vote. The proxy holders will vote your shares as indicated on your proxy or as you otherwise instructed. I want to remind everyone today that the remarks, including the ones Scott makes in the business overview, may include forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the future of the company's performance.
Actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements, and factors that could cause these results to differ materially from those contemplated by those forward-looking statements are described in our Form 10-K filed with the SEC on February 19th, 2020, and most recently filed in our Form 10-Q. Any forward-looking statements that we make are based on assumptions as of today, and we undertake no obligation to update these statements as a result of new or changing information in the future or other future events. We may discuss both GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of these GAAP to non-GAAP measures is included in our fourth quarter 2019 and first quarter 2020 earnings releases posted on the investor relations page of our website. On or about April 14th, 2020, the notice of this meeting was mailed to all stockholders of record as of April 3rd, 2020.
The record date for this meeting was April 3rd, and only those stockholders can vote at this meeting. I've been informed by the inspector of elections that at this meeting, we will have represented or in person or by proxy shares of common stock representing about 46,828,195 votes out of a total of 69,869,214 eligible votes as of the record date. This constitutes more than a majority of the voting power entitled to vote at this meeting as of the record date, and the quorum is therefore present. This meeting is authorized to transact business. The time is now 11:11 A.M. Pacific on March 28th, 2020, and the polls are open for voting on all matters to be presented at this annual meeting. The polls will close to voting after we go through the matters to be voted upon.
The first item of business is to elect three Class 3 directors, each to serve until the 2023 annual meeting of stockholders or until his successor has been elected and qualified or until his earlier resignation or removal. The nominees for the election of Class 3 directors are Scott Sanborn, Simon Williams, and Michael Zeisser. The board of directors recommends that you vote for the election of Mr. Sanborn, Mr. Williams, and Mr. Zeisser. The second item of business is to approve on a non-binding advisory basis the compensation of our named executive officers as disclosed in our 2020 proxy statement. The board of directors recommends that you vote for the approval of the compensation of our named executive officers as disclosed in the proxy statement.
The third item of business is to ratify the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2020. The board of directors recommends a vote for the ratification of the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2020. The fourth and final item of business is to approve a proposal by the company to amend the company's restated certificate of incorporation to phase in the declassification of the company's board of directors so that the future terms of all board members will be one year in length. The company's restated certificate of incorporation requires that this proposal be approved by at least two-thirds of the outstanding shares of the company rather than a majority of the shares voting at this meeting.
The board of directors recommends a vote for the proposal to phase in the declassification of the board. If you have a question about any of these proposals, please type the question into the question box on the meeting website. I will read the questions aloud. Please limit your questions at this time to these four proposals. Following the formal portion of this meeting, Scott will give an overview of the business and will answer any additional stockholder questions around the business at that time. We will only consider questions submitted in writing through the meeting website. Let me pause here and see if we have any questions regarding these proposals. There are no questions about the proposals at this time. Therefore, the polls for voting at this meeting are now closed, and no further proxies or ballots will be accepted. I will now read the preliminary voting results.
On proposal one, Scott Sanborn, Simon Williams, and Michael Zeisser have received the most votes as Class 3 directors and each in excess of the majority of shares voting for directors. Therefore, Scott Sanborn, Simon Williams, and Michael Zeisser have been elected as Class 3 directors. On proposal two, holders of 96.8% of the votes cast voted to approve on an advisory basis the compensation of LendingClub's named executive officers as disclosed in the 2020 proxy statement. Therefore, the proposal has passed. On proposal three, holders of 98.6% of the votes cast ratified the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2020. Therefore, the appointment of Deloitte & Touche LLP as our independent registered accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2020 has been ratified.
On proposal four, holders of 99.7% of the votes cast voted to approve the company's proposal to amend the company's restated certificate of incorporation to phase in declassification of the board of directors. However, this vote represented 46.8% of the outstanding shares of the company. This proposal was required to be approved by at least two-thirds of the outstanding shares of the company. Because the proposal did not receive a sufficient number of votes of shares voting in favor, the proposal did not pass. Let me remind everyone that the final results will be tallied by the inspector of elections, and we will include them in a current report on a Form 8-K that we will file with the Securities and Exchange Commission within four business days of this meeting. Thank you.
I now declare the formal portion of LendingClub's 2020 annual meeting of stockholders to be adjourned. I will now turn the call over to Scott Sanborn, who will give us a brief overview of the company's business.
All right. Thank you, Brandon, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Though it does feel like a long time ago, we feel good about our operating results in 2019. LendingClub delivered record loan volume, record revenue, and executed against a simplification program to drive profitability. Our efforts left us well-positioned as we exited the year, firmly in the market leadership position, and having achieved break-even in Q4, carrying a lowered and more variable cost structure. Last year, we also conducted crisis simulations to help us prepare for unforeseen events. Unfortunately, our preparedness was tested sooner than we expected with the onset of COVID-19 in March of this year. The impact of the pandemic has been unprecedented on the economy, businesses, and families across the country, and of course, it has also affected LendingClub, reinforcing the importance of our strategies, including pursuing a bank charter.
Through this crisis, we have been directing our activities according to five guiding principles. One is to keep our employees safe. Two is to preserve our liquidity. Three is to protect platform investor returns. Four is to support our members. Five is to stay on track for the acquisition of Radius Bank. Our top priority has been to keep employees safe, and I'm pleased to say we've had only a handful of cases and all have recovered well. In early March, we closed our physical workspace and implemented a work-from-home strategy. We're fully operational and quite productive, and we will be thoughtful and deliberate about deciding when employees can safely return to the office. Operationally, we took a number of steps to help our borrowers and manage lower investor demand while conserving our cash.
We worked quickly to implement new payment and hardship plans for borrowers and to significantly increase our customer support capacity. As COVID-19 resulted in lower demand for personal loans, we also undertook a number of initiatives to balance supply and demand and to significantly reduce our expenses. These expense reduction actions included a 30% reduction in our staffing level, which was a difficult but necessary decision as we seek to preserve our cash and position the company to rebound when the environment eventually improves. The board and the management team are focused on driving shareholder value while continuing to improve the way in which we serve our customers. To that end, earlier this year, we announced that we're acquiring Radius Bancorp, a leading online bank. The acquisition of Radius is transformative for us.
It's both strategically and financially compelling, and it will enable us to lower our own borrowing costs, increase operational efficiency, and allow us to offer a wider range of products and services to our members. We remain on track to complete the acquisition within the next 12 months. As we look ahead toward the rest of the year, we do expect the environment to remain challenging. With our strong balance sheets, the cash flow from our servicing operations and our loan book, and the decisions we've taken to reduce expenses, we do believe we're positioned to meet those challenges and to emerge stronger and more resilient than ever before. Thank you all for your support of LendingClub. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy. With that, I'll turn it back to Brandon.
Thank you, Scott. If you have a question about the business, please type the question into the question box on the meeting website. I will read the questions aloud. We will only consider questions submitted in writing through the meeting website. It looks like we have a few questions that have been submitted so far, so I'll ask the first one. I'm both a shareholder and an investor in the notes. Your company is supposed to be a peer-to-peer lender, but for over the last year or so, all good loans are being offered to institutional clients, and all the poor loans are being left to the public. When will this situation be corrected?
Okay. First, thank you for being both a shareholder and a loan investor. I think explaining the way the system works, the loans that are available to retail investors are, in fact, a fully representative random sample of standard program loans. Those are loans to consumers above 660. The concept of good loans going to institutions is not representative of how the platform operates. There is a custom program, which is predominantly loans below 660, which go to institutions, which are a very different risk profile, but that's it.
Thanks, Scott. Okay. The second question. Have you approached Radius Bank to understand the impact of COVID on their balance sheet and look at renegotiating the merger agreement?
Yeah. We are in very close contact with the management team at Radius. We meet with them weekly, and they are monitoring it closely, as are we. It is really too soon to understand the impact on a bank balance sheet and to see how those loans are going to perform over time. The bank has been conservative in terms of the portfolio of loans they issue and hold. I do not know if it is a reminder because I am not sure we talked about it, but our merger agreement does contain an adjustment for the book value of the bank. If it goes up or down, the purchase price will be reflected accordingly. A further note I would add is one of the things Radius has been doing during this time period is they have really dove in and provided a lot of support for the PPP loans.
You've probably read the stories about the difficulty of some of the large banks in getting these loans out to their customers. In a sign of the kind of cultural alignment between Radius and ourselves, the team worked over the weekend, got an online application up, and have managed to approve and issue hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of PPP loans. It's great news here.
Thanks, Scott. Next question. Have you approached Shanda to look at renegotiating the payment?
The payment has left the building, so that is a no.
A related question, the next question is, is this payment available for other minority shareholders?
No. The reminder that the purpose of this payment was to clear the path for a bank charter. There are stock ownership requirements or ownership thresholds that Shanda was in excess of that would have prevented us from obtaining a charter. We've talked, I think, at length about the benefits of a bank charter for the business model, including our ability to control our own issuance and generate the savings from that, the ability to lower our own borrowing costs, to hold loans on our balance sheet as a portion of our marketplace and our marketplace mix, offer more products to customers. We believe there are very, very material benefits to that.
The negotiation with Shanda was long and was deliberate, but we believe that it has set us up to kind of clear that pathway and allow us to create a lot of value by getting into the charter framework.
Thanks, Scott. The next question. Is the checking account still on track?
Clearly, a checking account product will be in our future. Right now, we're obviously going through the approval process, and that's a little more sensitive because of the fact that acquiring the bank, we need to be sensitive to how the companies work together until this transaction is approved. More to come on that, but we're very excited to offer this as an additional product both to our retail investor customers as well as to our borrower members.
Thanks, Scott. It doesn't appear there are any more questions, so we will now conclude the meeting.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's meeting. You may now disconnect.