In most cases, loan officers are paid a commission that is largely based on the number of loans that they are able to originate within a given pay period. Obviously, the more loans that an officer originates,the greater the commission that is to be gained. The amount of the commission that is paid per loan, also varies between differing financial institutions. In some cases, the commission is a percentage of loan amount for each particular loan that is originated, and in other cases, the commission may be a percentage of the total loan amount originated for that pay period. Commission payments are a large motivator for officers to originate as many loans as possible, which makes this a highly feasible method of payment for many financial institutions.

Some financial institutions compensate their loan officers with both a salary and a commission. The base salary will usually only be minimum-wage or slightly higher, which leaves it up to the loan officer to originate as many loans as possible in order to increase their commission pay. A large number of financial institutions pay their loan officers a salary, that may increase as the officer originates more and more loans, whereby increasing his or her value to the financial institution. It must be stated that those officers that are paid by commission usually earn a much greater income than those paid strictly by salary.

The median annual salary for loan officers is nearly $44,000, which makes this a viable career option for those individuals with the necessary skills to perform these duties. The salaries of loan officers also vary according to their specialties, loan officers working with credit intermediation usually earned the greatest salaries among these officers.

A loan officer who can personally approve mortgage loans or other types of loans to both individuals and companies might be required to have insurance in the form of a surety bond. That would make his decisions on giving mortgage or personal and company loans more personal to him since default or loss of those loans that he approved would be paid by his surety insurance company. A surety bond is protection from insurance companies who are also risking their investors money in covering surety insurance buyers. A loan officer who has a surety bond has been screened by his surety insurance bond giver. That assurance from a surety bond company is a guarantee to the bank or lending institution that his loan decisions will be based on sound financial principles.
A mortgage loan officer who has a surety bond would according to the precepts of surety bonds be responsible for a mortgage loan that is defaulted on by the holder of the mortgage loan.
The laws of each state are different regarding the buying of surety insurance by a loan officer. A loan officer surety bond is protection for the money that a loan officer is lending out.