LendingClub has quietly inked a deal to offload the risk in the personal loans originated on its platform. And, surprisingly, that deal is with an auto lender.

Santander Consumer USA, it was disclosed last week, has made a deal to acquire unsecured consumer loans originated on the peer-to-peer lending platform. The deal was made last March, but only became public last week, because Santander filed for an initial public offering on July 3.

The Santander filing offers scant details of the arrangement. What is known is that Santander in March 2013 entered into and began purchasing receivables “under certain agreements” with LendingClub, the peer-to-peer unsecured lending technology company. The agreements allow Santander to purchase up to 25% of LendingClub’s total originations for a term of three years. LendingClub continues to service the receivables Santander purchases.

Additionally, the strategic relationship with LendingClub gives Santander “the right to purchase nonprime loans as well.” No additional details on this aspect of the agreement were disclosed.

In May Google led a $125 million investment round of LendingClub, which has former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers on its board of directors. LendingClub is based in San Francisco.

Santander is one of the nation’s largest auto finance companies. This year it began making loans as Chrysler’s private-label auto finance company, Chrysler Capital. The Santander IPO is expected before yearend.

The offloading of loans by LendingClub can’t be anything but good news for the company, although it does raise questions about the degree to which LendingClub values the very assets it originates. Ostensibly, the Santander deal, at least to some degree, led to the Google investment, which implies that Google was pleased that LendingClub made the loan-sale deal. Liquidity, in the end, is good for lending, and, therefore, good for LendingClub.