Graeme Sutton, a mortgage & protection associate at L&C, completed the transaction, a Nationwide agreement in principle, on 29 January, and was rewarded with a trip to New York for two.

Since launching its competition was launched in December, the mte has seen a huge surge in the number of transactions processed via the platform. January was its busiest month on record, with 33,000 transactions taking place.

Mark Lofthouse, chief executive officer of the Mortgage Trading Exchange, who presented the prize to Sutton, commented: “The massive increase in the number of transactions processed during the start of the year has been amazing; the competition could have been won by anyone but it seems quite fitting that it was an adviser at London & Country.”