Mortgage Lender Benchmark: Halifax ranked as highest rated lender

Halifax was only one of two lenders who received an overall rating over 90%.

Mortgage Lender Benchmark: Halifax ranked as highest rated lender

Halifax was ranked as the highest rated lender by brokers, according to the Mortgage Lender Benchmark from Smart Money People.

The speed to process applications through to offer and the ease of application remain its key strengths.

The lender has achieved the top spot in the past three editions of the benchmark, which uses a SWOT analysis and a wealth of in-depth data from 468 brokers.

The overall satisfaction of brokers with the lenders they do business with has seen a slight decrease.

It has dropped from 81.6% in H2 2018 to 81.1% in H1 this year.

Michael Fotis, founder of Smart Money People said: “In the last half of 2019, broker satisfaction with mortgage lenders has once again declined.

“Overall, brokers are satisfied with the interest rates, product range and criteria offered by lenders.

“But they are increasingly unhappy with customer service, speed to completion and communication in particular.”

Accord Mortgages is the highest rated building society lender, the first time it has achieved the top spot.

Meanwhile, Fleet Mortgages was ranked as the best specialist lender, with communication performing particularly well.

Barclays offers competitive rates but brokers remain unsatisfied with all process themes, including its online systems and underwriting.

M&S Bank is the UK’s poorest rated bank whilst Atom Bank is the most improved lender with its overall satisfaction rating rising by 9.5%.

The business development managers of more 2 life and Pure Retirement, two lifetime mortgage providers, are the highest rated across all lenders.

Brokers continue to be most satisfied with the performance of building societies, who outperform banks, specialist and lifetime lenders.

Only two lenders, Halifax and Accord, received overall ratings over 90%, down from eight lenders in H1 2019.

Brokers sharing feedback about adverse credit cases were the least satisfied with the performance of lenders.