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 £33 billion 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
£50 billion annually.
This year's data shows that during
2025, the NACFB's 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, 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. £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.
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 £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,” 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.
