Broker-led SME lending surges by 25% to £33bn in 2025

NACFB member brokers originated £33 billion in SME lending in 2025, a 25% year-on-year increase which it says "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 £50 billion annually.

This year’s data shows that during 2025, broker members arranged 180,000 loans for UK businesses, generating an estimated £12 billion in direct GVA. When wider economic effects are included, the total impact rises to £19.2 billion, with lending activity supporting an estimated 185,000 additional jobs. Notably, 62% of broker-facilitated lending was delivered outside London and the South East.

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. £33 billion arranged by NACFB brokers alone. A 25% year-on-year increase. Lending that supports jobs, regional growth and economic output across the UK. 

“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 and advocacy at the NACFB, added: “The £33 billion 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."