The Mortgage Lender Benchmark returns to find out which lenders are providing the best service to mortgage brokers and their customers.

From today until the 10th November 2019, mortgage brokers will be able to share their feedback about the last five lenders they’ve done business with. To complete the survey, please visit https://smartmoneypeople.com/mortgage-lender-benchmark

The Mortgage Lender Benchmark is a bi-annual independent research study designed to help lenders learn what brokers really think about them. Run by Smart Money People, the UK’s financial services review and insight business, brokers are asked about lenders’ criteria, speed, eligibility, communication and relationship managers. They are also asked to share what they like about each lender and what could be better. Smart Money People uses its proprietary machine learning algorithms to analyse the free text commentary left by brokers.

Nate Harwood, Co-Founder at Smart Money People, said “With most lenders heavily reliant on brokers to deliver mortgage volume, the Mortgage Lender Benchmark sets out to provide actionable insight that helps lenders better understand what they need to do to keep brokers happy. This research can also help lenders enhance their intermediary proposition and gain an advantage in what is an increasingly competitive marketplace.”

Mortgage networks and clubs will also be able to better understand how the feedback left by their brokers compares against that left by brokers across rival networks and clubs.

424 brokers gave their feedback on 81 lenders as part of the last Mortgage Lender Benchmark report which was released in June 2019. Alongside league table data, the study produced 35 pages of SWOT (strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis on individual lenders, providing a unique broker insight of banks, building societies, specialist and lifetime lenders. Summary findings were presented at the June 2019 meeting of IMLA.

The June 2019 report identified wide gaps in the performance of lenders. While brokers recognised significant improvements at HSBC, specifically around satisfaction with BDMs, rates and speed to completion, they were less likely to recommend specialist lenders.