A mortgage loan, residential or commercial, that is extended to a borrower in whole- i.e., without securitization. The loan is not sliced into tranches. It is an unsecuritized mortgage loan that is sold by a whole loan lender in the secondary market. The borrower assumes all the risks associated with the loan, while the lender has no rights to the loan after the sale.

Whole loans come in many types including: residential whole loans, commercial whole loans, construction whole loans, etc.