New research from Smart Money People has found that broker satisfaction with mortgage lenders has increased by 2.5% from 77.8% to 80.3% in the last six months, although overall satisfaction has not yet recovered to the peak seen in H1 2020 of 82.70%.

The financial services customer review and insight website revealed that over half of mortgage lenders saw an increase in their overall rating. Compared to results in H2 2020, lenders who improved often achieved greater broker satisfaction around the speed and ease of the application process. Lenders who have seen a decline in their overall rating in H1 2021 often did poorer around customer service, speed and underwriting.

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. Scores in H1 2021 range from +70.8 to -50.0, with the average across all lenders increasing by 11.9 points to +24.7, from +12.8.

Jacqueline Dewey, CEO of Smart Money People said: “The improvements in overall satisfaction in H1 2021 represent an increase to an industry average of 80.3%, having dropped by 4.9%, an all-time low, from our last report in H2 2020.

“This increase is encouraging and shows that the mortgage industry is now recovering from the effects of the pandemic. Lenders now seem to be comfortable with new working patterns and are better placed to cope with the incredibly high demand we’ve seen during the pandemic.

“However, broker sentiment is not yet back to pre-pandemic levels, and the results show that there is still more work that lenders can do to improve the broker experience. The next six months will be interesting to watch and see what happens to broker satisfaction, as we see lenders return to offices and adapt to a more permanent state of hybrid working.”

Top bank: Halifax
Top building society: Skipton Building Society
Top buy-to-let lender: Godiva
Top specialist lender: Pepper Money
Top lifetime mortgage lender: Canada Life