Broker-led SME lending surges to £33bn as intermediaries cement central role
The National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) has today published its inaugural Intermediary Market Outlook 2025/26, providing the most comprehensive picture to date of the UK’s broker-led SME finance market.
NACFB Member brokers originated £33bn in SME lending in 2025, a 25% year-on-year increase that positions the intermediary market as a core pillar of UK business finance. NACFB analysis indicates that its Members account for nearly two-thirds of broker-facilitated SME lending in the UK, placing the total broker-led market at approximately £50bn annually.
This year’s data shows that during 2025, the NACFB’s broker Members arranged 180,000 loans for UK businesses, generating an estimated £12bn in direct GVA. When wider economic effects are included, the total impact rises to £19.2bn, with lending activity supporting an estimated 185,000 additional jobs. Notably, 62% of broker-facilitated lending was delivered outside London and the South East, underscoring the intermediary market’s significant role in driving regional economic growth.
The 92-page Intermediary Market Outlook also draws on lender and broker survey data to explore transaction volumes, market dynamics, emerging friction points, regulatory considerations and expectations for the year ahead, enriched by independent third-party insight to provide a holistic, evidence-led view of the sector.
Jim Higginbotham, CEO of the NACFB, said: “For most within our industry, the central role of brokers in SME finance has long been understood through experience. What this report does is provide external, data-backed evidence of that reality. The scale is unmistakable. £33bn arranged by NACFB brokers alone. A 25% year-on-year increase. Lending that supports jobs, regional growth and economic output across the UK.
Jim added: “This is no longer a peripheral channel within SME finance. Intermediaries are a structural component of how funding flows to small businesses. As complexity in the market increases, so too does the value of informed, professional guidance. The evidence shows a mature, resilient and increasingly influential intermediary market – one that policymakers, lenders and stakeholders cannot afford to overlook.”
Kieran Jones, head of Communications & Advocacy at the NACFB, added: “The £33bn headline understandably draws attention, but the real substance of this report sits beneath that number. When you look closely at the data, you see brokers considering an average of six lenders per deal, a quarter of clients having been declined elsewhere before being successfully funded, and nearly two-thirds of lending delivered outside London and the South East. Those details reveal how this market actually operates – through careful structuring, regional reach and problem-solving capability.
“We also see a shift in behaviour. Relationships are increasingly ongoing rather than transactional, core lender panels are deepening, and a growing proportion of lender portfolios are now broker-originated. That speaks to maturity and consolidation, not fragmentation,” Kieran added.
For the first time, the NACFB has combined internal CRM data, broker survey responses and lender insight to build a detailed demographic and economic profile of its membership base, which now stands at 1,400 broker firms and more than 3,000 individual brokers – the largest in its history.
The report signals a more confident, evidence-led approach from the trade body, strengthening its ability to inform policy, support professional standards, and represent the intermediary market with authority.
The full Intermediary Market Outlook 2025/26 is available to download and read online here.