Loan Origination

Loan origination is the process by which a borrower applies for a new loan, and a lender processes that application. Origination generally includes all the steps from taking a loan application through disbursal of funds (or declining the application). Loan servicing generally covers everything after disbursing the funds until the loan is fully paid off. Loan origination is a specialized version of New account opening for financial services organizations.

There are many different types of loans. For more information on loan types, see the loan and consumer lending articles. Steps involved in originating a loan vary by loan type, various kinds of loan risk, regulator, lender policy, and other factors.