Latest figures point to expanding broker role in UK SME finance market
The National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) has reported that its members arranged £33 billion of lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 2025, underlining the scale of broker-led finance in the UK.
According to the trade body’s first Intermediary Market Outlook 2025/26, the figure represents a 25% increase in annual SME lending arranged by NACFB member firms. The association estimates that its members account for close to two-thirds of all broker-originated SME lending, implying a total intermediary-led market of around £50 billion a year.
The report indicates that NACFB brokers completed 180,000 business finance transactions in 2025. The lending is estimated to have generated £12 billion in direct gross value added, rising to £19.2 billion once wider economic effects are included, and to have supported about 185,000 additional jobs.
Around 62% of the funding arranged by brokers was for firms based outside London and the South East, indicating that intermediary activity is a significant source of capital for regional businesses.
“For most within our industry, the central role of brokers in SME finance has long been understood through experience,” said Jim Higginbotham (pictured top), chief executive of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers. “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 (pictured right), head of communications and advocacy at the NACFB, said the report’s underlying data shows how brokers are navigating a more complex funding environment on behalf of clients.
“The £33 billion headline understandably draws attention, but the real substance of this report sits beneath that number,” Jones said.
“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.”
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