The short answer
A bank can take commercial loan requests from brokers. Treat the referral arrangement as a third-party relationship under the 2023 interagency guidance, scaled to its risk. Know who pays the broker and document it. On SBA loans follow the agent fee rules and Form 159. Underwrite from source documents, not the broker's summary. Your Regulation B duties are unchanged, and 18 U.S.C. 215 governs anything of value given to bank staff.
Scope
This guide is for a commercial lender, credit officer or compliance officer at a bank that receives loan requests from commercial loan brokers. It describes the federal texts that bear on that work and some practical habits. It is not legal advice, and your bank’s own policies govern.
The broker as a third party
The June 2023 Interagency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships addresses “any business arrangement” between a banking organization and another entity, “by contract or otherwise.” It says a third-party relationship “may exist despite a lack of a contract or remuneration,” and its examples include “referral arrangements.” The agencies state that the guidance “does not have the force and effect of law and does not impose any new requirements,” and that sound risk management “takes into account the level of risk, complexity, and size of the banking organization and the nature of the third-party relationship.”
Read plainly: a broker who brings you two loans a year and is paid by the borrower is a low-risk relationship. A broker who brings a large share of a product line under a fee agreement with the bank is not. The guidance describes a life cycle of planning, due diligence and selection, contract negotiation, ongoing monitoring and termination. For a loan broker, a proportionate version might be:
- Who the firm is: legal name, owners, how long in business, and any license its state requires
- References from other lenders
- How it is paid and by whom, in writing
- A short agreement where the bank pays fees or the volume is meaningful: no authority to commit the bank, accuracy of submissions, confidentiality, fair lending conduct, and the bank’s right to stop
- A record of what the broker has sent, what closed and how those loans have performed
- A periodic look at complaints and at whether the pattern of referrals raises a fair lending question
Whether your bank keeps a list of brokers it accepts, and at what volume it requires a written agreement, is a policy decision.
Fees: know them and show them
Borrower-paid fees. Get the fee agreement between the broker and the borrower. A fee paid from loan proceeds is a use of proceeds. It belongs in the credit memo’s sources and uses and on the closing statement, and it reduces the cash going to the stated purpose.
Bank-paid fees. If the bank pays a referral fee, decide by policy who may authorize it and how it is recorded, and make sure the borrower is told.
Both. If a broker is paid by both sides, both should know.
State law. Some states license or regulate commercial loan brokers or require disclosures. Ask counsel about the states where you lend. This guide cites none.
SBA loans
If your bank is an SBA lender, the broker is an agent, and SBA’s rules bind the bank as well as the agent.
SBA agent fee rules a lender must police (SOP 50 10 8.1; 13 CFR part 103)
| Rule | What it says |
|---|---|
| Compensation agreement | Under 13 CFR 103.5 an agent must execute and provide a compensation agreement. Fees are reported on SBA Form 159 |
| Percentage fees charged to the borrower | Not more than 3 percent on loans of $50,000 or less. For larger loans, 2 percent up to the first $1,000,000 and 0.25 percent on the portion over $1,000,000. Not more than $30,000 in the aggregate |
| Documentation | All fees over $2,500 must be supported by documenting the service performed |
| Not allowed | A standard or flat fee charged to all borrowers, contingency fees, and charges for services not reasonably necessary |
| What the lender itself may not charge | The 7(a) lender and its associates may not charge the borrower for consulting, broker or referral services |
| Two hats | An agent may package for the borrower and be a referral agent for the lender only if both the borrower and the lender are aware of both relationships |
| Refinancing | The SBA loan may not refinance a debt where the creditor is an agent involved in the loan |
Worked example (hypothetical). A broker submits a $600,000 SBA 7(a) request with a fee agreement for 3 percent of the loan, payable at closing. Three percent of $600,000 is $18,000. The SOP’s ceiling for a percentage fee on that loan is 2 percent, or $12,000. The agreement is also contingent on closing. Both points must be fixed before the loan proceeds: a fee of no more than $12,000, not conditioned on closing, supported by a record of the services, and reported on Form 159.
See the 7(a) checklist for the borrower-side documents.
Keep the credit work yours
A broker’s package is advocacy. That is the broker’s job. Yours is to underwrite.
- Source documents. Tax returns, signed leases, bank statements and the purchase contract come from the borrower. Verify returns through the IRS where your policy or SBA requires it.
- Rebuild the numbers. Derive net operating income or cash flow yourself. Treat the broker’s spreadsheet as a guide to where to look.
- Talk to the borrower. Early, and without the broker on at least one call. You are lending to the borrower.
- Order the reports. The appraisal and other reports are engaged by the bank.
- Keep the broker out of the decision. Share the outcome and the conditions. Do not share the credit memo.
Fair lending
Regulation B makes a person who regularly participates in a credit decision a creditor. For the provisions that bar discrimination and discouragement, a person who “regularly refers applicants or prospective applicants to creditors” is a creditor too. So the broker has duties of its own, and the bank’s are not reduced.
- A request that arrives through a broker is a request to the bank. Your notice obligations under 12 CFR 1002.9 follow from your own process and timing.
- The rule’s notice is owed to the borrower, so send it to the borrower and not only to the broker.
- Look, from time to time, at who a broker brings you and who it does not. A referral source can import a pattern you would not adopt yourself.
- Hold every referral source to the same standards and pricing rules.
Confidentiality
A broker handles your borrower’s tax returns and personal financial statements before you do. Ask how the broker stores and sends them, and give the broker and the borrower a secure way to deliver documents to you. Tell the broker only what the borrower has agreed you may share about the decision.
Things of value
18 U.S.C. 215 reaches both sides. It covers whoever corruptly gives or offers “anything of value to any person, with intent to influence or reward an officer, director, employee, agent, or attorney of a financial institution in connection with any business or transaction of such institution,” and any such person who corruptly solicits or accepts it. It does not reach “bona fide salary, wages, fees, or other compensation paid, or expenses paid or reimbursed, in the usual course of business.” The statute directs the banking agencies to publish guidelines, and your bank’s code of conduct will set limits on meals, entertainment and gifts. Know them before the first lunch.
What a good submission contains, and what to ask for
Tell brokers what you want. A first package should have:
- One page: the loan in one line, sources and uses, the ratios with inputs, the sponsor
- The broker’s fee agreement and who pays
- Which other lenders have the request
- Core financials for the kind of loan
- A debt schedule and an ownership chart
- A plain statement of anything unusual
What a lender-ready package looks like is the public version of that list.
Response standards
Set your own and keep them. A quick, clear no lets a broker move on, and a broker who gets one tends to come back. Useful habits:
- Acknowledge a request and say when you will answer.
- Give a reason with a no: size, type, market or timing.
- If the loan is too large for your house limit and you like it, say whether you would sell a participation.
- Say what you do want. Brokers repeat it.
Saying what you want in public
Brokers read your call report before they call. It shows what you hold. It cannot show what you want next. What brokers see about your institution describes the page they read on this site and how a representative of the bank can correct facts on it.
Terms used here
- Commercial mortgage broker: A commercial mortgage broker is a person or firm that takes a borrower's loan request to lenders and is paid a fee, without lending its own money.
- SBA agent (packager, referral agent or broker): Anyone who represents an applicant or a lender in dealings with SBA for pay: an attorney, accountant, consultant, packager or broker. SBA does not require a borrower to use one.
- SBA Form 159 (fee disclosure): The form that discloses to SBA any fee paid to an agent such as a packager or broker, and a lender fee above $2,500, with the compensation agreement behind it.
- Regulation B: The federal rule, 12 CFR part 1002, that carries out the Equal Credit Opportunity Act: it bars credit discrimination on prohibited bases and sets notice rules, for business credit as well as consumer credit.
- Adverse action notice: The notice a lender must give under Regulation B when it refuses credit in substantially the amount or on the terms requested, with the reasons or the right to ask for them.
- Credit committee: A credit committee is the group inside a lender that decides on loans above the amount a single loan officer is allowed to decide alone.
- Originator: An originator is the person, or the lender, that brings in a loan request and carries it through to closing.
- House limit: A cap a bank sets for itself, below the legal lending limit, on how much it will hold for one borrower, one property type or one market.
- Loan participation: A loan in which other lenders buy shares from the lender that made it, under a written agreement that keeps the first lender in the loan for its whole life.
- Community bank: A community bank is a smaller bank that takes deposits and lends mostly in the area around its offices, and decides on loans close to home.
Sources
Every rule and outside figure above comes from one of these, opened on . Dates are the source's own. Figures from this site's data carry their own source and date beside them.
- Interagency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships: Risk Management, 88 FR 37920 (Federal Reserve, FDIC, OCC), dated .
- SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, Lender and Development Company Loan Programs (Section A, Chapter 4: agents, fees and SBA Form 159), dated .
- 13 CFR part 103, Standards for Conducting Business with SBA, retrieved .
- 12 CFR 1002.2 and 1002.9, Regulation B (creditor; notifications), retrieved .
- 18 U.S.C. 215, Receipt of commissions or gifts for procuring loans, retrieved .
Next step: check the record
- See your bank's pageWhat a broker reads before calling you: your loan books, size and branches, from your own filings.
- Claim your pageFree, with a work email at your bank's own domain. Correct facts a broker would otherwise get wrong.
- Report an errorIf a figure differs from your filing, tell us.
Keep reading
- Deal summary builder: Turn the facts of a deal into a clean one-page summary you can copy or print. Nothing is saved or sent.
- What brokers see about your bank or credit union: Every bank and credit union has a page here, built from public filings. This guide says what is on it, where each number comes from, what you can correct and add, and what nothing can change.
- How a loan broker works with community banks: A community bank will take a good loan from a broker it trusts. Trust comes from three things: the bank knows who is paying you, your packages are accurate, and you bring loans that fit what the bank does.
- A credit union lender's guide to working with brokers: Brokers bring loans a credit union would not otherwise see. Taking them well means four checks before credit: can the borrower join, is there room under the cap, is the loan inside the limit to one borrower, and who pays the broker.
- What a lender-ready loan package looks like: A lender decides in minutes whether to keep reading. A package that answers the first five questions on one page, and backs each answer with a document, gets read.
- The legal lending limit, explained: A bank may not lend more than a set share of its capital to one borrower. The rule explains why a large loan gets shared, and why a lender can say a request is too big for it.
- Loan participations, explained: A participation lets one lender make a loan that is too large for it to hold alone. The borrower signs with one lender. Behind that lender, others own pieces of the loan and share its risk.
Questions people ask
Is a loan broker a third party under the interagency guidance?
The guidance covers any business arrangement between a bank and another entity, by contract or otherwise, and names referral arrangements as an example. It also says sound risk management takes into account the level of risk and the nature of the relationship, so the depth of review is yours to scale.
Is this the same as brokered deposits?
No. Brokered deposits are a funding matter with their own rules. A loan broker brings borrowers. Nothing in this guide concerns deposits.
May a lender accept a gift from a broker?
18 U.S.C. 215 makes it a crime for a bank officer or employee to corruptly accept anything of value intending to be influenced or rewarded in connection with the bank's business. Follow your bank's code of conduct, which will set its own limits, and when unsure decline.
Cite this
Source: The Lender Report, A banker's guide to working with loan brokers, https://lender.report/guides/bankers-guide-working-with-brokers/, data as of November 11, 2026.
General information, not legal, tax or credit advice. A lender's own policy decides what it will do; ask it for the policy in writing.
SBA does not require you to use an agent or broker for a loan application. SBA has not reviewed or endorsed this site.