Agencies that build websites for small and midsize businesses keep running into the same pitch: put a funding widget on client sites, earn on every funded deal, turn one-off projects into recurring income. Some version of that can work. But the pitch usually skips two questions that decide whether it is worth doing: how much of the income is truly recurring, and who carries the legal role of referrer once money changes hands.
This article answers both. It does not quote typical commission rates or agency earnings, because we found no public, independently sourced benchmark for either. Any partner that quotes you a number should show you its basis in the contract.
Two different setups, two different referrers
"Agency lending revenue" covers two arrangements that work differently.
- The agency offers funding to its own clients. A funding page or portal on the agency's site, or inside its client dashboard, lets the businesses it builds sites for apply for capital. The agency is the referrer.
- The agency embeds funding on a client's site for the client's customers. A software company, equipment dealer or B2B supplier adds a "see financing options" feature for its own business customers. Here the referrer could be the agency, the client, or both, depending on who signs the partner agreement and who gets paid.
The second setup is where most confusion starts. If the lending partner pays the agency for applications that come through a client's site, the agency is the one being paid to refer, even though the client's brand is on the page. Put the roles in writing before launch: who signs with the partner, who receives compensation, and who answers for the consent forms and marketing copy.
The revenue models, compared
Lending partners and marketplaces pay referral partners in a few standard ways. Agencies can also charge their own clients for building and running the feature.
| Model | Who pays the agency | Paid when | How predictable |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fee per funded deal | Lending partner | A referred business is funded | Low: depends on volume and approval rates |
| Revenue share | Lending partner | As the partner earns from referred deals, sometimes over time | Low to medium: depends on volume and contract terms |
| Fee per qualified lead | Lending partner | A lead meets the partner's criteria | Medium, but invites low-quality leads |
| Build or maintenance fee | The agency's client | On the agency's normal billing schedule | High: same as any retainer |
A few points the table compresses:
- Only the maintenance fee is truly recurring. It is ordinary agency revenue for hosting, updating and monitoring the feature. It does not depend on anyone getting funded, which also means it does not depend on the agency steering anyone toward a loan.
- Revenue share can recur but is not guaranteed. Whether payments continue after funding, and for how long, is set entirely by the contract. Read the termination clause: some agreements end payments when the partnership ends.
- Per-lead fees create the wrong incentive. When the agency is paid for volume, the pressure is to push more people into applications, which is exactly the conduct regulators look at in lead generators (see below).
What the demand actually looks like
The Federal Reserve Banks' 2026 Report on Employer Firms, based on 6,525 small employer firms surveyed from September to November 2025, gives a baseline. Thirty-eight percent of firms applied for a loan, line of credit or merchant cash advance in the prior 12 months. Of applicants, 42% received the full amount they sought, 36% received some and 22% received none. The share of applicants going to online lenders rose from 17% in the 2020 survey to 29% in the 2025 survey.
Here is what that means for one client site. Say an equipment dealer has 200 business customers. If they behave like the Fed's sample, about 76 would apply for financing somewhere in a year (200 × 38%), and about 32 would get the full amount they sought (76 × 42%). Most of those will apply through their own bank or a lender they already know, not through a widget on the dealer's site. The site captures a slice of 76, and only the funded part of that slice produces per-deal or revenue-share income.
That arithmetic is why "earn on every funded deal" pitches tend to overstate the opportunity for small client lists, and why a maintenance fee is the steadier piece. It also argues for picking clients whose customers buy expensive things on a regular cycle, where financing is part of the purchase decision.
The rules that come with getting paid for referrals
Being paid to send businesses to lenders is a regulated activity in some states, and several federal rules reach referrers directly.
State referral and broker rules
California draws the clearest line. California Financial Code section 22602 lets a licensed finance lender pay an unlicensed person for referring a borrower for a commercial loan, but only under conditions: the loan's annual percentage rate cannot exceed 36%, the lender must underwrite, and the unlicensed referrer may not take part in loan negotiation or counsel or advise the borrower about a loan. A referral, under the statute, means introducing the borrower and lender or passing the borrower's contact information to the lender. A broker, as the DFPI's licensing FAQ describes it, is a person "engaged in the business of negotiating or performing any act as broker." The practical lesson: an agency that builds and maintains the feature, and never talks to applicants about terms, is in a different position from one whose staff help clients' customers compare offers.
Texas requires providers and brokers of commercial sales-based financing to register with the Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner by December 31, 2026, through NMLS, with a $1,000 initial and annual renewal fee as of November 2026, under the OCCC's adopted rules for Texas Finance Code Chapter 398. If a partner's products include sales-based financing and you are paid on Texas deals, get a written read on whether your role is a broker's.
Fair lending
Regulation B, the rule under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, covers business credit. Its rules against discrimination and against discouraging applications apply to anyone who "regularly refers applicants or prospective applicants to creditors, or selects or offers to select creditors," according to the CFPB's text of 12 CFR 1002.2. If you build logic that decides which visitors see a funding offer, the criteria should be business facts the lender uses, applied the same way to everyone.
Marketing claims
The FTC has said that "small businesses are protected under the FTC Act," and its guidance on small business financing lists brokers and lead generators among the parties it watches, warning against misrepresenting a product's cost, payment amounts or features. Agencies write copy for a living, so this one lands on them directly. Cut "guaranteed approval," "no credit check" unless the partner confirms it in writing, and any suggestion of a government program tie.
There is a borrower-experience reason too. In the Fed survey, 60% of firms that borrowed from online lenders said actual borrowing costs were higher than expected. A funding feature on a client's site that leaves customers feeling misled costs the client more goodwill than the referral fee is worth.
Consent forms the agency builds
If the funding flow ends with a call or text from the partner, the form the agency builds is where consent is captured. Under 47 CFR 64.1200, autodialed or prerecorded telemarketing calls to a wireless number require "prior express written consent": a signed agreement (electronic signatures count) that clearly authorizes the seller to contact a specific number, with a disclosure that signing is not a condition of purchase. After the Eleventh Circuit vacated the FCC's 2023 "one-to-one" consent change, the FCC restored the earlier definition effective August 29, 2025. Name the company that will call, log the consent text and timestamp, and confirm with the partner how that consent covers any lenders it shares the lead with.
Data and security
The simplest way to limit an agency's exposure is to keep applicant data off agency servers: use the partner's hosted application or embedded frame rather than a custom form that stores answers. Where a custom form is unavoidable, collect only what the partner needs. The FTC's Safeguards Rule, which sets security requirements for non-bank financial institutions, added "finders," firms that bring together buyers and sellers, as an example of a covered institution in 2021. Whether a business-lending referral flow is covered depends on whose information it handles, but its controls are a reasonable baseline.
Bank partners will look at you
If the lending partner works with a bank, the bank's regulators expect it to manage referral relationships. The interagency guidance on third-party relationships from the Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC lists "referral arrangements" among third-party relationships and covers planning, due diligence, contract terms, ongoing monitoring and termination. Expect questionnaires and marketing-approval clauses in the contract.
What to put in the partner contract
- Payment trigger and timing: funded deal, qualified lead, or revenue earned, and when it is paid.
- Reporting and audit rights: you cannot verify a revenue share without deal-level reports.
- Clawbacks: whether fees are reversed if a deal defaults or is refunded early.
- Termination: whether payments on existing deals continue after either side ends the agreement.
- Compliance duties: who supplies disclosures, who approves marketing, who handles complaints, and who maintains consent records.
- Licensing representations: the partner's licenses and registrations by state, which you can check through the free NMLS Consumer Access lookup that the Conference of State Bank Supervisors describes.
- Data terms: what you may store, for how long, and what happens on a breach.
Common mistakes
- Promising clients income. Unless you have their customers' data and a sourced conversion rate, any projection is a guess. Sell the build and maintenance, not a revenue forecast.
- Leaving the referrer role undefined between agency and client.
- Letting staff answer loan questions from applicants, which can turn a referral into brokering under state law.
- Shipping consent forms that name nobody.
- Signing a revenue share without reporting rights.
For how these offers work inside software products, see our explainers on embedded lending and launching embedded lending. For the products your clients' customers will see, our guide to merchant cash advances explains how that product's cost is quoted and how to compare it.
Loanistry is owned by Trulli, which runs a lending platform for brokers, agencies and software companies: trulli.ai.
Sources
- Federal Reserve Banks: 2026 Report on Employer Firms, Small Business Credit Survey, checked November 2026
- California Financial Code section 22602 (Public.Law), checked November 2026
- California DFPI: California Finance Lenders License Frequently Asked Questions, checked November 2026
- Texas OCCC: Commercial Sales-Based Financing rules adoption, 7 TAC Chapter 86, checked November 2026
- CFPB: Regulation B, 12 CFR 1002.2 Definitions, checked November 2026
- FTC: Protecting small businesses seeking financing during the pandemic, checked November 2026
- GovInfo: 47 CFR 64.1200, Delivery restrictions, checked November 2026
- Federal Register: FCC rule conforming the prior express written consent definition to the Eleventh Circuit decision, August 29, 2025, checked November 2026
- FTC: FTC Safeguards Rule: What Your Business Needs to Know, checked November 2026
- Federal Reserve, FDIC and OCC: Interagency Guidance on Third-Party Relationships: Risk Management, checked November 2026
- Conference of State Bank Supervisors: Nationwide Multistate Licensing System (NMLS), checked November 2026