what is a whole loan 
a whole loan is a single loan issued to a borrower lenders of whole loans often sell them in the secondary market to institutional portfolio managers and agencies such as freddie mac and fannie mae lenders sell their whole loans to reduce their risk rather than keeping a loan on their books for 15 or 30 years by selling the whole loan to an institutional buyer the lender can almost immediately recoup the principal understanding whole loanswhole loans are issued by lenders to borrowers for multiple purposes a lender may issue a personal loan or a mortgage loan to a borrower with specified terms determined by the credit issuer following the underwriting process generally whole loans are held on a lender s balance sheet and the lender is responsible for servicing the loan selling whole loans in the secondary market allows a lender to generate cash that it can use to make more whole loans which generate more cash from closing costs paid by borrowers 