Legal
How the lending marketplace is paid
We are not a lender. We are paid by lenders, in amounts your board sees in dollars on every comparison, and every comparison includes the option of not borrowing at all.
Board Butler is not a lender
We do not lend money, we do not make credit decisions and we do not price credit. Partner lenders do all three, on their own criteria, and the corporation's agreement is with the lender.
We assemble the corporation's file from its own live data, present it to lenders the board chose to approach, and put what comes back in front of the board in a form it can compare.
How we are paid
A partner lender pays us an origination or referral fee when a facility it funded through the marketplace closes. The corporation pays us nothing for the marketplace.
The fee for each offer is shown in dollars on the comparison, beside that offer, before the board votes. Not as a percentage, not in a footnote, and not after the decision.
Because we are paid on closing, a board should read the marketplace with that in mind. That is exactly why the fee is on the comparison and why the comparison always includes the no-debt option.
The no-debt comparison rule
Every financing comparison the product produces includes not borrowing: the special assessment or the phased funding equivalent, with its own total cost, alongside the loan options.
This is a rule in our codebase with a test behind it, not a policy that depends on someone remembering. A financing comparison that has no no-debt option cannot be produced.
How partner lenders are chosen
A lender joins the marketplace by applying, and we admit lenders that are licensed or registered where they operate and that will lend to corporations of the size we serve. We do not admit a lender because it pays more.
A lender sees the corporation's credit file only after the treasurer has consented to share it, and sees only what the file contains. It does not get owner-level personal information, and it does not get access to the product.
The consent your treasurer gives
Before anything is shared, the treasurer is shown the file and accepts this: that Board Butler may share the corporation's credit file with the named lenders selected, for the purpose of obtaining financing offers; that the file contains the corporation's financial statements, ledger summaries, reserve study, budget, arrears summary and governing documents; that it contains no owner-level personal information; that consent can be withdrawn before the file is sent; and that a lender that receives it will handle it under its own privacy obligations.
The file is not sent to a lender the board did not select, and it is not sent before that consent is recorded.
Licensing
Whether operating this marketplace requires registration as a broker depends on how the facility is secured and on the province or state involved, and it is a question we have put to counsel rather than answered ourselves. This page will carry the statement counsel approves, and nothing before it.
Until then we are describing what we do rather than claiming a status: we introduce corporations to lenders, we are paid by lenders on closing, and we disclose that fee on every comparison.
Complaints
Write to lending@boardbutler.com. Tell us what happened and what you want done. We will answer in writing, and if the complaint concerns the lender rather than the marketplace we will say so and give you the lender's own complaints route.
How the marketplace works
Every comparison includes not borrowing at all, priced, and that is a rule in the codebase rather than an editorial choice.