Mortgage brokers in Italy (mediatori creditizi)

What a credit broker is

Art. 128-sexies of the Testo unico bancario (TUB, the consolidated banking act) defines the credit broker as someone who links banks, financial intermediaries or other authorised lenders with potential customers for loans of any kind, including through advice or through an online channel. The broker may carry out only that activity and related or instrumental ones, and must work without ties to either party that could compromise independence.

Two features matter to a foreign buyer.

• It is a reserved activity. Practising the trade professionally toward the public is limited to people entered in the list kept by the OAM (art. 128-sexies, para. 2; art. 128-undecies).
• A free introduction is not brokerage. Art. 128-sexies, para. 1-bis, says that a mere, unpaid presentation of a consumer to a lender, a broker or a financial agent, made as a side service within someone’s main business or profession, is not credit brokerage. A real estate agent who points you to a bank without being paid for it falls in this category.

The law also names the financial agent (agente in attività finanziaria) among credit intermediaries (art. 120-quinquies), next to credit brokers. Payotte did not read the rules on agents, so this guide covers brokers only; the information duties below apply to credit intermediaries generally.

Independent advice is a separate status

The TUB reserves the label “independent” for a narrower category: the person who professionally and exclusively provides independent advice on loans, who is entered in a special section of the same list and is paid only by the client (art. 128-sexies, paras 2-bis and 3-bis). Advice proper, meaning a personalised recommendation, is reserved to lenders and credit intermediaries; it may be described as independent only if given by that special category (art. 120-terdecies). The adviser must act in the consumer’s best interest and consider a sufficiently wide range of contracts on the market.

If someone calls themselves an “independent adviser” and also takes commissions from banks, ask which status they hold.

What the broker must tell you first

Art. 120-decies obliges the credit intermediary to give you, in good time before starting any intermediation and on paper or another durable medium:

1. its name and registered office;
2. the register where it is entered, its registration number and the means of verifying the registration;
3. whether it is tied by a mandate or works exclusively with one or more lenders, and which ones;
4. whether it provides advice;
5. the fee you must pay it, or if the fee is not fixed, the method used to calculate it;
6. how to complain and how to reach an out-of-court complaint mechanism, where one exists;
7. whether lenders or third parties will pay it commissions and, if known, how much;
8. if it takes a fee from you and a commission from the lender, an explanation of whether the commission is deducted, in whole or in part, from your fee;
9. your right, if it receives commissions from lenders, to ask for comparable information on the amounts paid by each lender.

The same article says that, for computing the APR in the standardised information sheet, the intermediary tells the lender the fee you will owe it. Your broker’s fee therefore appears in the cost figure; see TAEG vs TAN.

This text is the one shown on Normattiva on 19 October 2026. Legislative Decree 212/2025, in force since 10 January 2026, reshaped several of these articles. Under its article 6, lenders and credit intermediaries must adapt by 20 November 2026 or, if later, within 90 days of the Banca d’Italia’s implementing rules. If you start with a broker around that date, ask which version they apply.

How to check a broker

The register is the OAM’s. Payotte could not read the OAM site on 19 October 2026 (access to its pages was refused), so it cannot describe its search tool or its terms of use here. Go to the OAM directly with the registration number the broker must give you. Do not rely on a broker’s website claim alone, and treat any broker who cannot give you a number as a reason to stop. Payotte does not rank, list or recommend brokers, and you check the title yourself.

Which professional to consult

The mortgage broker page describes the trade in general terms. A notary handles the loan deed itself, but does not choose or negotiate your loan. For a second opinion on a fee clause, a lawyer can read the mandate before you sign it.