Tracking brokers’ opinions on lenders over the last half decade

This June we published our Mortgage Lender Benchmark study for the first half of 2023. We’ve carried out this survey twice a year since 2018, making this our tenth issue.

With so much negativity surrounding lenders in the mainstream press, some people might be bracing themselves for similar sentiment among brokers, but this turns out not to be the case.

In fact, the headline figure – overall satisfaction with lenders – is greater than it was five years ago, standing at 83.4% in 2023 – a record high - compared to 82% in 2018. This dipped to 77.8% in 2020, when Covid was in full swing.

And across the same time frame, the average Net Promoter Score (NPS) of lenders has moved from +30 in 2018 to +34 today – with it having dropped to +12.8 in 2020.

I mention 2020 because in taking a selection of our benchmarks – H2 2018, H2 2020, and H1 2023, we can take a wide-ranging look at how the mortgage industry has changed over the previous half decade.

For example, complaints about product information accuracy have all but disappeared, no doubt due to improvements in sourcing systems and the way brokers utilise them. And lifetime lenders have moved from being the least well-liked type of lender in terms of processes and speed to scoring the highest in these areas out of all lender types today.

In fact, lender speed and communication stand out as being much improved more broadly, although specialist lenders still attract the majority of complaints here, countering the positivity surrounding their customer service and technology.

But issues persist across all lender types over the years. Brokers continue to voice much concern over the speed and quality of product innovation, and alarmingly, in 2023, a third said they feel their feedback is not being listened to by tech providers when it comes to voicing their requirements.

Another theme that jumps out is customer service. Satisfaction here dropped – perhaps understandably – during 2020, with Covid pushing lenders’ capability to the limit (although many people surveyed believed Covid was being used as an excuse). And the working from home trend that really gathered steam in 2020 drove many brokers to request better communication and access to lender staff. This is still an issue today, especially with banks, with these lenders scoring below average in this category.

Our latest study paints a picture of an industry that has recovered from the pandemic admirably in many areas, something brokers are happy to celebrate.

And it’s clear that investment in technology has been swift and effective. This momentum must not be lost. After all, further development here will positively impact customer service, processes, and speed to application which, although having improved considerably, will always be some of the main drivers behind broker satisfaction.

Lenders must not also ignore the fear that brokers are being ignored, which ties into issues over communication.

Work on our study for the second half of this year has already begun, with the results scheduled for publication in late Q4 2023. I greatly look forward to sharing its results and those of the many others we plan to conduct in future.