By Kaylan Pepin, CPA, CMA, Co-founder and CEO of Levr.ai. Kaylan spent his career in commercial banking at RBC, CIBC, and BDC before building Levr.
If you are brokering business loans, or thinking about starting, compensation is the part of the industry with the least written down. Having sat on the lender side of these deals for years, here is how the money actually flows.
The main model: lender-paid commissions
Most business loan brokers are paid by the lender when a deal funds. The structure varies by product. Term loans and working capital deals commonly pay a percentage of the funded amount, often in the low single digits. Factoring and invoice finance deals often pay a share of the factoring fee rather than the principal. Some lenders pay flat referral amounts per funded deal instead.
The percentages differ meaningfully between lenders, even for the same product. That is worth knowing before you submit, not after. On Levr, each lender’s commission rate is visible in their profile up front, so you know the economics of a deal going in.
Client fees on top
Some brokers also charge their client a success fee, commonly a few points on the funded amount. This is legal in most places for commercial lending, though disclosure expectations are tightening in several US states. If you charge client fees, put them in writing early. Nothing kills referrals faster than a fee the client feels surprised by at closing.
When you get paid
Payment lands after funding, on the lender’s payout schedule, which ranges from days to a month depending on the shop. Two things to check in any lender agreement: the payout cadence, and whether there is a clawback clause. Clawbacks mean the lender takes back some or all of your commission if the borrower defaults or refinances within an early window. Most lenders do not have them, but some do, and you want to know which is which before you build your pipeline around them.
The quiet cost: platform cuts
Here is the part I care about most. Some broker platforms sit in the payment flow and take a large split of your commission in exchange for access. I have seen splits that take anywhere from a third to most of the fee. That is your margin going to a middleman.
Levr does not work that way. Brokers keep 100 percent of their commission, lenders pay you directly at their stated rates, and we never sit in your payment flow. We make our money from lenders who use the platform to manage their intake, which means our incentives point the same direction as yours: more funded deals.
Quick answers
How much do business loan brokers make per deal? It ranges from a flat referral fee to several points on the funded amount, depending on the product and lender. Volume and deal size matter more than any single rate.
Do I need agreements with each lender? Traditionally yes, and negotiating each one is slow. On Levr, network lenders operate under pre-signed agreements, so you can submit without doing that paperwork lender by lender.
Is this different from mortgage brokering? Yes, meaningfully. Commercial lending is far less regulated, compensation is less standardized, and licensing rarely applies. More on that in our guide: do you need a license to broker business loans.
Broker on a platform that never touches your commission. Join Levr free.
This article is for general education, not financial or legal advice. Rules and commission structures vary by lender, state, and province, so verify anything that matters to your business.
