Awards
Awards Methodology
RefiLoop Lender Data awards are based on recorded loans, not marketing. Every award is computed from county-recorded commercial deeds of trust and quarterly FFIEC Call Report filings — public records, verified at the source. Nobody applies, nobody pays, and no award can be bought.
How awards are earned
- County-record-verified. Activity awards count actual commercial deeds of trust recorded with the county clerk, matched to the lending institution. If it wasn't recorded, it doesn't count.
- Volume-based, quarterly. Rankings are computed once per calendar quarter, after the quarter closes, from that quarter's recorded volume (and, for growth awards, quarter-over-quarter Call Report data).
- No submissions. Lenders cannot apply, nominate themselves, or submit data to be considered. Winners are often surprised to hear from us — that's by design.
- No fees, no pay-to-play. There is no charge to win, display the badge, or appear in a ranking — and no paid placement of any kind. Displaying the badge or linking to us is welcome but never required.
Categories and minimum data floors
Every category has a minimum data floor. If a county or category doesn't clear its floor in a given quarter, no award is issued — we would rather skip a quarter than rank lenders on thin data.
| Award | Winners | Minimum data floor |
|---|---|---|
| Most Active CRE Lender — {County} County | Top 10, ranked | At least 50 bank-matched commercial deeds of trust recorded in the county that quarter; each winner needs at least 5 recorded loans. |
| Top Multifamily / Retail / Office / Industrial CRE Lender — {County} County | Top 3, ranked | At least 15 recorded loans of that property type in the county that quarter; each winner needs at least 3. |
| Fastest-Growing CRE Lender — Texas | Top 5, ranked | Quarter-end FFIEC Call Report on file, CRE loan book of at least $50M, positive quarter-over-quarter CRE growth, Texas headquarters, and at least 10 banks clearing all of the above. |
| Top Credit Union / Top Private Lender — Texas CRE Lending | Winner only | At least 3 institutions of that type must qualify (3+ county-recorded commercial loans each in the quarter). A category of one is not an award. |
Data sources
- County recorded documents — commercial deeds of trust from Texas county clerk records, classified and matched to lenders.
- FFIEC Call Reports — quarterly regulatory filings (CRE loan balances, growth) as reported by each institution to its regulator.
Recorded-document data is inherently a sample of market activity: recording lags, unmatched lender names, and unstated amounts mean counts can understate a lender's true volume. Floors exist precisely so those gaps can't flip a ranking.
Badges and links
Winners receive a badge image and an optional embed snippet. Use of the badge — on a website, in a press release, on LinkedIn — is free and entirely optional, and no link back to us is ever a condition of the award.
Corrections
If you believe an award, ranking, or the underlying record data is wrong, tell us. We verify against the source records and correct errors promptly. See our correction process or email the data team.
Awards recognize recorded lending volume and reported regulatory data only. They are not an endorsement, a rating of financial strength, or a recommendation to borrow from any institution.