Smart Money People finds broker satisfaction with mortgage lenders has increased in H2 2021 to 81.3%

09 December 2021

New research out today from Smart Money People has found that broker satisfaction with mortgage lenders is now 81.3%, an increase of 1% from H1 2021, and an increase of 3.5% from 12 months’ ago. However, the research has found that broker satisfaction has not yet recovered to the pre pandemic peak of 82.7% seen at the start of 2020.

Smart Money People is the leading financial services customer review and insight website, and the findings come from its twice-yearly Mortgage Lender Benchmark which dissects the state of the mortgage industry according to the views of brokers. Today’s publication comprises feedback from over 750 mortgage brokers on 49 mortgage lenders.

The Mortgage Lender Benchmark also asked brokers how likely they are to recommend a lender, to calculate the Net Promoter Score, a measure of loyalty. The average score for all lenders within the benchmark increased by 2.4 to 27.1. The peak Net Promoter Score for all lenders was recorded at the start of 2020 at 30.8. Specialist lenders performed the strongest of all sectors for an improvement to their Net Promoter Score in the eyes of brokers, registering an increase of 15.8 from -3.5 in H1 2021 to 12.3 in H2 2021.

Commenting on the findings, Jacqueline Dewey, CEO of Smart Money People said:

“The sustained increased in broker satisfaction with lenders for H2 2021 shows that the mortgage industry is now returning to normality following the perfect storm of disruption to normal working patterns over the last two years and an unprecedented level of demand for mortgages in 2021. New data released from UK Finance this week has suggested that levels of lending will be at their highest since 2007, and the findings today suggest that in the eyes of mortgage brokers, lenders have responded incredibly well.”

Broker rated lenders for H2 2021
Top bank: Halifax
Top building society: Newbury Building Society
Top buy to let lender: Skipton Building Society
Top specialist lender: Fleet Mortgages
Top lifetime lender: Canada Life

The Mortgage Lender Benchmark is released today, 9th December, by Smart Money People. Now in it’s seventh edition, the report features feedback from over 750 brokers on over 100 lenders, with a detailed analysis on 49 lenders across banks, building societies, specialist lenders and lifetime providers, as well as their thoughts on the mortgage market in general.

Along with asking brokers to rate lenders on different aspects of their proposition, Smart Money People analyses the comments that brokers provide when asked what they like or what could be improved for each lender. These are mapped across 20 themes to give a rich insight into how each lender is performing.