The Smart Money People H1 2026 Mortgage Lender Benchmark found that the satisfaction brokers had when dealing with mortgage lenders overall stayed stable, with a score of 4.22 out of five, just 0.03 down on the score given in H2 last year.
Pure Retirement maintained its H2 2025 position as the best later life lender in H1 2026, while Pepper Money also held on to its place as the top specialist lender.
Other lenders ranked in the same position as the previous survey included BM Solutions as the best buy-to-let (BTL) specialist, Allica Bank as the top bridging and commercial lender, and Atom Bank as the best digital-first lender.
Recognition for building societies
Building societies were given a score of 73.6 in the Broker Experience Index, overtaking mainstream lenders who were rated top in the previous survey. Mainstream lenders were not far behind mutuals when it came to their interactions with brokers, receiving a score of 70.8 in H1.
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The Broker Experience Index covers metrics such as service, speed, digital tools and support, and lenders were given a score of 70.2, slightly down on the previous period’s score of 71.
Brokers gave an average net promoter score (NPS) of +40.9 for all lenders, down 0.4 points from the previous survey.
Jake Sandford, head of data and analytics at Smart Money People, said: “Despite the rate volatility that occurred during the first half of this year, it’s clear from these results that lenders across the sector broadly maintained their high standards to support brokers and their customers during uncertain times.
“However, the slight dip in metrics across the board alludes to the issues faced by the industry in the first half of this year and as always, undoubtedly lessons will have been learnt by the lending community this time around.”
Hamza Behzad, business development director at Finova – this edition’s headline sponsor – added: “As a technology provider powering one in five mortgages in the UK and with nearly £50bn in loans and savings under management, Finova sees the Smart Money People Mortgage Lender Benchmark as a valuable source of insight into what is working well across the market and where there are opportunities to improve.
“By giving lenders access to meaningful feedback and performance data, the benchmark helps drive continuous improvement and supports better outcomes across the mortgage market. This aligns closely with our focus on enabling a more efficient, data-driven and customer-centric mortgage ecosystem.”
The survey included feedback from 980 brokers across 510 firms, who shared their views on 126 lenders, representing 98.1% of UK gross mortgage lending.
