The Intermediary –- May 2026 - Flipbook - Page 42
RESIDENTIAL
Opinion
Who can deliver
under pressure?
W
hen we
published
our H2 2025
Mortgage
Lender
Benchmark,
the headline picture was encouraging.
Overall satisfaction with mortgage
lenders rose to 4.25 out of 5.0, its
highest level since 2020. Meanwhile,
the Broker Experience Index increased
to 71.0, and average Net Promoter
Score rose to +41.3. The study drew
on feedback from 1,040 brokers at 537
firms, covering 120 lenders and 98% of
UK gross mortgage lending.
Halifax was named best overall
and best mainstream lender, with
Coventry Building Society, Pure
Retirement, Pepper Money, BM
Solutions, Allica Bank and Atom Bank
leading their respective categories.
On the surface, that suggests a
market moving in the right direction.
But the deeper story in H2 2025 was
not just that brokers felt positive
overall. It was that they continued to
judge lenders most heavily on the dayto-day reality of geing cases done.
The thematic analysis shows
process-related feedback made up
61.9% of all comments yet carried the
weakest sentiment at 69.7.
Product themes were more positive,
and people themes remained a
strength, but neither had the same
weight in broker feedback. In other
words, product and relationships
maer, but process shapes the
day-to-day experience more than
anything else.
Speed and ease
That comes through even more when
looking at what brokers actually
talked about. Speed accounted for
15.0% of all comments, with ease
13.4% and underwriting 12.8%,
meaning those three themes alone
made up more than 40% of feedback.
Ease scored strongly, underlining
the value brokers place on simple,
40
The Intermediary | May 2026
intuitive journeys. However,
underwriting lagged badly on
sentiment, while communication,
valuations and legals also remained
weaker spots.
So, although H2 2025 rewarded
lenders that delivered dependable endto-end journeys, it also showed exactly
where the market still had friction.
Volatility backdrop
H1 2026 promises to be an interesting
period. If H2 2025 showed which
lenders were performing well
in relatively stable conditions,
H1 2026 is likely to show which
lenders are responding beer to
increased volatility.
In March 2026, Twenty7tec reported
that 34,380 product changes happened
between 9th and 19th March.
The issue for brokers was not
simply that pricing moved, but that
it moved quickly and repeatedly.
That kind of disruption tends to turn
operational strengths and weaknesses
into something much more visible.
A lender that feels efficient when the
market is calm can look very different
when products are being withdrawn
and replaced at pace.
Portals, case-tracking,
underwriting responsiveness, broker
communications, notice periods
and business development manager
(BDM) accessibility all become more
important when the window to secure
a deal narrows.
That means anecdotal comments
in H1 2026 may be revealing, as
they’re likely to show who remained
dependable under pressure.
Five themes in H1 2026:
Operational resilience: Lenders
keeping cases moving despite
repricing pressure are likely to be
remembered well.
Communication and visibility:
Where brokers are given timely
updates and enough notice to act,
frustration be lower.
JAKE SANDFORD
is head of data and analytics
at Smart Money People
Digital workflow: H2 2025 already
showed that online systems and
tools maer, and volatile conditions
only raise the premium on stable,
intuitive technology.
Human support: Helpful BDMs,
knowledgeable underwriters and
responsive service teams become
even more valuable when brokers
are trying to rescue cases or manage
anxious clients.
Criteria clarity: This will maer
even more, because in fast-moving
markets, ambiguity costs time and
time can cost clients.
There’s also a wider strategic message
here. In H2 2025, mainstream lenders
set the pace because they combined
scale with dependable journeys,
while buy-to-let (BTL) specialists and
building societies remained close
behind by delivering strong tools,
service and relationships.
H1 2026 may test whether those
advantages are truly embedded. In a
market where brokers are likely to
remember who gave them confidence
during disruption, resilience could
become an even stronger differentiator
than headline rate alone.
That’s why the next edition of the
Mortgage Lender Benchmark maers.
We ran the H1 2026 broker survey in
April, with results due in June. When
we opened the survey, we said that
we expected the impact of thousands
of products being withdrawn and
replaced to show up in the findings.
We’ll find out in a couple of months
which lenders communicated best,
supported brokers most effectively
and kept business moving during
a turbulent start to the year. Stay
tuned folks! ●
