Leads
MCA leads: how merchant cash advance leads are sourced and sold
MCA leads are small businesses looking for a merchant cash advance; this page covers who buys them, the formats, and the state laws involved.
Published · Updated
What is an MCA lead?
An MCA lead is a small business that has shown interest in a merchant cash advance (selling a share of future card or bank receipts for cash now), sold to funders or the brokers, known as ISOs, who place deals with them.
Key facts
- As of November 2026, New York's Commercial Finance Disclosure Law requires cost-of-financing disclosures on deals of $2.5 million or less, including how and by whom the broker is paid. (Source: New York Finalizes Commercial Financing Disclosure Regulations, Goodwin, February 2023, checked )
- Virginia's 2022 sales-based financing law (HB 1027) requires providers and brokers of sales-based financing, such as merchant cash advances, to register and to give disclosures. (Source: Virginia Enacts Merchant Cash Advance Registration and Disclosure Law, Mayer Brown, 13 April 2022, checked )
- California's Commercial Financing Disclosures law (SB 1235), effective 9 December 2022, requires consumer-style disclosures for financing to California businesses, including merchant cash advances. (Source: State laws requiring commercial financing providers to provide disclosures, DLA Piper, 20 January 2023, checked )
- The TCPA's consent rules for autodialed and prerecorded calls apply to mobile phones whoever owns them, so a public UCC filing gives no permission to dial a business owner's mobile with a dialer. (Source: 47 CFR 64.1200, Delivery restrictions (TCPA rules), eCFR, checked )
The buyers: funders and ISOs
Merchant cash advance is a business-to-business product, which shapes everything about its leads. The buyers are funders, which advance the money, and independent sales organisations (ISOs), the brokers who collect a merchant's bank statements and shop the file to several funders for a commission.
Large ISOs run their own sales floors and buy leads by the thousand; smaller shops buy a handful of live transfers a day.
What makes an MCA lead valuable
What they want is a business owner with steady deposits who needs money quickly: a restaurant before a slow season, a contractor waiting on a receivable, a trucking firm with a broken rig. Time in business, monthly revenue and whether the merchant already has advances outstanding decide what a lead is worth.
Formats you will see
The usual MCA lead products, from cheapest to most expensive. Prices are left out: the published lists we could check were seller marketing that contradicted itself.
UCC list
- What it is
- Businesses that recently filed or were named in a UCC-1 financing statement, a public record
- Main risk
- No consent to be called; public data is not permission to telemarket
Aged application
- What it is
- Merchants who applied weeks or months ago and were sold on
- Main risk
- Stale need, old consent, already called by many ISOs
Real-time web lead
- What it is
- A merchant filling in a funding form now
- Main risk
- Fake or incentivised forms; resale to many buyers
Bank-statement lead
- What it is
- An application with recent statements attached
- Main risk
- Statements are sensitive financial data and need careful handling
Live transfer
- What it is
- A screened owner connected to the ISO on a live call
- Main risk
- Screening scripts that overstate revenue to get paid
Why we don't quote MCA prices
Pricing in MCA is murkier than in insurance. Most published price lists come from sites that sell the leads, and they disagree with each other by an order of magnitude for the same format, so we don't quote them here.
The pattern that does hold: lists of public filings sell per record for very little, while live transfers cost far more because a person has already confirmed interest.
Calls to businesses are still regulated
A common mistake is assuming business numbers are fair game. The TCPA's consent rules for autodialed and prerecorded calls apply to mobile phones whoever owns them, and most small business owners answer on their mobile. A UCC filing gives you a name and an address; it gives you no permission to dial that owner's mobile with a dialer.
State calling limits
State law adds to it. Florida limits solicitation calls to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and three calls in 24 hours on the same subject. Oklahoma's 2022 act requires prior express written consent for calls made with an automated system and has a business-to-business exemption, but the exemption's scope is something to check with a lawyer rather than assume.
State financing laws that reach ISOs
- New York: disclosures on deals of $2.5 million or less
- $2.5 million
- California SB 1235 effective
- 9 December 2022
- Utah registration and disclosure act effective
- 1 January 2023
| State | Rule | What it means for lead and deal flow |
|---|---|---|
| New York | Commercial Finance Disclosure Law; final regulations adopted 1 February 2023 | Cost-of-financing disclosures on deals of $2.5 million or less; the provider must disclose how and by whom the broker is paid |
| California | Commercial Financing Disclosures (SB 1235), effective 9 December 2022 | Consumer-style disclosures for financing to California businesses, including merchant cash advances |
| Utah | Commercial Financing Registration and Disclosure Act, effective 1 January 2023 | Registration and disclosures; DLA Piper notes it applies to both providers and brokers |
| Virginia | Sales-based financing law (HB 1027), 2022 | Providers and brokers of sales-based financing must register; disclosures required |
| Florida | Telephone Solicitation Act, amended 2021 | Calling hours 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.; three calls on one subject in 24 hours |
| Oklahoma | Telephone Solicitation Act, effective 1 November 2022 | Written consent for automated calls; private right of action |
Warning signs in an MCA lead source
- Leads described as 'funded merchants' with no explanation of how the seller knows that.
- Bank statements passed around by email or shared drives with no access control.
- Revenue figures that are all round numbers just above a funder's minimum.
- Transfers where the merchant doesn't remember asking about financing.
- A seller who scraped the list and calls it 'consented' because the filings are public.
Where DataBroker comes in
We don't sell MCA leads or run a lead exchange. DataBroker is a paid course plus an app for people who broker data and lead deals.
For a would-be MCA lead broker, the useful parts are the lessons on qualifying a source's consent and data handling, the contract structures for selling to ISOs, and the tracker that keeps sellers, buyers and terms together.
What you can charge depends on the sources you find and the buyers you sign.
Sources
6 sources · checked Nov 7, 2026
The DataBroker team checked the facts on this page against 6 public sources, last on .
- State laws requiring commercial financing providers to provide disclosures, DLA Piper, 20 January 2023Checked
- New York Finalizes Commercial Financing Disclosure Regulations, Goodwin, February 2023Checked
- Virginia Enacts Merchant Cash Advance Registration and Disclosure Law, Mayer Brown, 13 April 2022Checked
- 47 CFR 64.1200, Delivery restrictions (TCPA rules), eCFRChecked
- Florida's New Mini-TCPA: What You Need to Know, Holland & Knight, 14 July 2021Checked
- Oklahoma's Mini-TCPA Takes Effect, ManattChecked
MCA leads FAQ
What are UCC leads?
Lists built from UCC-1 financing statements, the public filings lenders make when they take a security interest in a business's assets. They show a business has borrowed before, but they carry no consent to be called.
Who buys MCA leads?
Merchant cash advance funders and ISOs, the independent brokers who gather a merchant's documents and shop the deal to funders for a commission.
Do TCPA rules apply to calling businesses?
Yes for mobile numbers. The TCPA's consent rules for autodialed and prerecorded calls cover mobile phones regardless of whether the owner uses them for business, and some state laws go further.
Do MCA brokers have to register anywhere?
In some states. Utah's commercial financing law covers brokers, and Virginia requires sales-based financing brokers to register. New York and California impose disclosure duties on providers that affect how broker pay is shown.
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