What role do commercial finance companies, stockbrokerages, and insurance companies play in providing debt-based loans to small businesses?

What will be an ideal response?

Answer:
a) Commercial Finance Companies—When denied bank loans, small business owners often look to commercial finance companies for the same type of loan. Commercial finance companies are second only to banks in making loans to small businesses and, unlike their conservative counterparts, are willing to tolerate more risk in their loan portfolios.
b) Stockbrokers also make loans, and many of them offer loans to their customers at lower interest rates than banks. These margin loans carry lower rates because the collateral supporting them—the stocks and bonds in the customer's portfolio—is of high quality and is highly liquid. Moreover, brokerage firms make it easy to borrow. For many small businesses, life insurance companies can be an important source of business capital.
c) Insurance companies offer two basic types of loans: policy loans and mortgage loans. Policy loans are extended on the basis of the amount of money paid through premiums into the insurance policy; with a policy loan, a business owner serves as his or her own bank, borrowing against the money accumulated in the investment portion of an insurance policy. It usually takes about two years for an insurance policy to accumulate enough cash surrender value to justify a loan against it.