Are the any regulatory guidelines for compensating non-lending personnel for referrals of consumer (non-residential) loans and can restrictions be placed on payment of the referral such as only compensate the employee if the loan closes.

Referral fees for non-RESPA loans are not prohibited under federal law. We used to refer to these as bird dog fees as dealerships paid them often, though not to bank employees where there might be a conflict of interest. That is a key issue you want to watch for. Does your ethics policy address this at all?

Yes that ethics policy does cover confict of interst. So for non-RESPA loans, payment of referral fees can be limited on the referrals that result in the loan being approved and closed.

There is no regulation on those loans, so referrals, approvals, denials, it isn't prohibited.

I think if this is your program you'd need a solid set of rules on who can do what, who gets credit, tracking who gets paid and watching tax implications.