Definition
A money broker is a financial intermediary who deals in money and monetary instruments on behalf of others. The term encompasses two related but distinct functions: (1) a dealer who buys and sells foreign currencies, bills of exchange, or other monetary instruments — historically called a money changer — and (2) an agent who arranges loans, raises capital, or otherwise negotiates the lending and borrowing of money between parties, taking a fee or commission for the service.
In early commercial law, the money broker occupied a recognized position in mercantile practice, facilitating currency exchange in an era of multiple competing currencies and bills drawn across jurisdictions. Over time, the functions historically consolidated under this term have been redistributed across more specialized categories: currency dealers, foreign exchange brokers, mortgage brokers, and loan brokers each carry formal regulatory definitions that largely supplant the older general term.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A broker who deals in different kinds of money; one who buys and sells bills of exchange; a money changer.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not separately defined; subsumed under general "broker" definitions, with money-changing treated as a distinct trade.
The common and legal meanings are substantially aligned at their core, but the legal context carries a regulatory dimension entirely absent from ordinary usage. Calling someone a "money broker" in conversation describes a function; calling someone a money broker in a regulatory or licensing context may trigger specific statutory obligations, registration requirements, and liability frameworks that vary sharply by jurisdiction and era.
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Common Confusion
MONEY BROKER vs. MONEY CHANGER: These terms overlap and are sometimes used interchangeably in historical sources, but they carry different emphases. A money changer traditionally dealt in the physical exchange of currency — converting one denomination or national currency to another. A money broker's role was broader, extending to the arrangement of loans and the negotiation of bills of exchange. In modern regulatory frameworks, both functions have been absorbed into more precise licensing categories, and neither term appears frequently in contemporary statutes.
MONEY BROKER vs. MORTGAGE BROKER / LOAN BROKER: The lending function once attributed to money brokers is now typically regulated under mortgage broker or loan broker statutes, which impose licensing, disclosure, and fiduciary requirements that did not exist when "money broker" was the operative term. Researchers who find "money broker" in historical sources should not assume modern mortgage broker regulations apply retroactively.
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Why It Matters in Research
This term is a historical marker more than a live regulatory category. Researchers encountering "money broker" in primary sources — contracts, commercial litigation, licensing records, or financial regulations — should treat it as a period-specific term whose functional meaning depends heavily on the date and jurisdiction of the source.
In pre-twentieth-century sources, money broker will often appear alongside bills of exchange, money of account, and foreign currency disputes. The term bridges the older law merchant tradition and emerging statutory commercial regulation. Bouvier uses it in the context of mercantile agents, and it connects to the broader law of principal and agent as applied to financial intermediaries.
In twentieth-century and later sources, the term largely disappears from statutory text. Its functions migrate into regulated categories: broker-dealer under federal securities law, foreign exchange dealer under currency regulations, and mortgage broker or loan broker under state licensing statutes. A researcher who searches for "money broker" in modern regulatory databases will find sparse results; searching the functional equivalents will be necessary.
The lending function of the money broker is also relevant to money laundering research. Arrangements structured to move funds through informal intermediaries — particularly in cross-border contexts — sometimes mirror historical money broker practices and appear in prosecutions under modern financial crime statutes.
Watch for jurisdictional variation in historical sources: English commercial law, civil law jurisdictions, and American state law each treated the money broker's role with different degrees of formality and different liability rules.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's defines the money broker concisely as "a money changer; one who lends to or raises money for others." This entry is notable for its brevity relative to the commercial importance of the role. Bouvier treats the money broker as a subcategory of broker generally, without elaborating on licensing or fiduciary obligations — consistent with a period when such regulation was minimal or nonexistent at the federal level.
The Wiktionary definition tracks the same dual function — currency exchange and bill-of-exchange dealing — and aligns closely with the historical legal usage.
What the historical dictionaries do not address is the transition: money broker as a recognized mercantile category did not simply disappear; it fragmented into regulated sub-categories as financial regulation matured through the twentieth century. Historical sources treat the term as self-evident and in common use; modern researchers cannot assume the same familiarity and must reconstruct the functional context from surrounding materials.
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Jurisdictional Note
In the United States, no uniform federal statute uses "money broker" as a defined regulatory term. State law varies: some states have historically used the term in usury or lending statutes, while others have never codified it. Researchers working in English, Canadian, or civil law sources will find the term used with different degrees of precision and different regulatory consequences than in American materials.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia: Special Topics — Regulation of Broker-Dealers
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia: Money Laundering (18 USC 1956–1957)
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