Broker registration and licensing

States reach commercial finance brokers in two ways. Registration or licensing rules say you must file with a regulator before doing business in the state, keep the filing current and sometimes renew it every year. Conduct rules say what you may and may not do while brokering, with no filing at all: no fees from the merchant before funding, no false statements, your contact details in advertising, pass on the provider's disclosure unchanged.

A shop can be fully registered and still break conduct rules, or have nothing to file and still be bound by them. You need both pictures for every state you work in.

Based on summaries from Holland & Knight, Sheppard Mullin, FS Vector and the Texas OCCC's own rule notice (all cited in our disclosure laws guide):

• HB 700 was signed in June 2025 and took effect September 1, 2025.
• It covers commercial sales-based financing, which includes merchant cash advances.
• Providers and brokers must register with the Texas Office of Consumer Credit Commissioner (OCCC) through NMLS.
• Registration filings open September 1, 2026. Businesses already operating must register by December 31, 2026; new entrants register before doing business in Texas.
• Registration renews annually and the law has no de minimis exemption.
• Civil penalties are reported at up to $10,000 per violation.

Among the other disclosure states, the guide reports that Florida and Georgia bar brokers from collecting advance fees (Georgia with exceptions) and that Florida requires the broker's address and phone number in advertisements. Whether brokers must register in Utah, Connecticut, Virginia, Kansas or Missouri was not verified for the guide: treat those as questions for counsel, not as a clean bill of health.

Separately, many funders write state restrictions into their ISO agreements, and some will not fund certain states at all. Your ISO agreement with each funder can impose duties stricter than the law.

A registry is a short table that answers one question fast: may we broker a deal for a merchant in this state today? A spreadsheet is fine if one person owns it.

Today Ferrylend records each merchant's state, which you can filter and report on to see where your book sits, and each lender's state restrictions, which lender matching checks before you submit. A broker licence and registration registry by state is part of the compliance pack, which is Coming soon; until then keep the registry described above alongside the CRM.