March 31, 2026
The legislatures of Maryland and New Jersey are considering commercial financing disclosure bills based on New York's existing law. Each bill seeks to have its state join California and New York in requiring providers of commercial financing to give estimated APR disclosures.
The Maryland bill, Senate Bill 881, is similar to New York's commercial financing disclosure law, except S.B. 881 was recently amended to also require licensing for commercial financing providers and added criminal penalties for non-compliance. It applies to transactions in amounts of $2.5 million or less and defines commercial financing to include closed-end loans, open-end loans, sales-based financing, and factoring. Like New York's law, the Maryland bill would require APR disclosures calculated pursuant to Appendix J of Regulation Z and a "double dipping" disclosure. It also would authorize the Maryland regulator to adopt "substantially the same" commercial financing regulations that the New York Department of Financial Services has adopted. If passed, the bill would take effect on October 1, 2026.
The New Jersey bill, Senate Bill 1760, is also based on New York's law. It too applies to closed-end loans, open-end loans, sales-based financing, and factoring, but only where the amount financed is $500,000 or less. The bill features more stringent broker fee disclosure requirements than in other commercial financing disclosure laws, including a requirement to disclose any increase in the APR resulting from broker fees. The bill would prohibit a broker from collecting any fees before closing and from making false or misleading representations. The bill would direct the state's Commissioner of Banking and Insurance to adopt regulations to implement the statute and provides that the regulations be "substantially similar" to regulations of other states that regulate commercial financing disclosures at least as strictly as this bill proposes to do. If passed, the bill would take effect 180 days after its enactment, but the compliance date would be 120 days after the adoption of regulations.