St. James’s Place Wealth topped the table with 2,655 appointed representative (AR) firms, despite recording the largest net decline in membership. The network has lost a net 100 firms year to date, with 158 firms leaving compared with 58 joining.
Primis ranked second with 1,018 AR firms, although it also reported a contraction in membership, posting a net loss of 33 firms. Quilter, the fourth-largest network with 677 AR firms, similarly experienced a decline, losing a net eight firms during the period.
Stonebridge Mortgage Solutions and HLPartnership both posted strong growth while remaining among the largest networks. Stonebridge ranked third overall with 736 AR firms and added a net 29 firms year to date, the strongest membership growth among the top five networks.
HLPartnership, which ranked fifth with 574 AR firms, grew by a net 26 firms.
Beyond the top five, ValidPath recorded the strongest growth in numerical terms across the entire table. The network added a net 40 firms, increasing membership by 14.4%. Ingard Financial delivered the highest percentage growth, expanding its AR firm count by 28.8% after gaining a net 19 firms. White Rose Finance Group was also among the strongest performers, reporting growth of 12.2% through a net gain of 18 firms.
At the other end of the table, Connect IFA recorded a net loss of 28 firms, equivalent to a decline of 12.7%, while Dragon Brokers experienced the sharpest percentage fall of any network. Its membership declined by 42.5% following a loss of 17 firms.
Among the larger networks, Stonebridge Mortgage Solutions and HLPartnership demonstrated notable growth, while St. James’s Place Wealth, Primis, Quilter and Openwork all reported net declines in membership.
Adviser density shows a different ranking among networks. Mortgage Advice Bureau (MAB) recorded the highest average number of mortgage advisers per firm, with 9.8 advisers across its 200 AR firms, representing a total of 1,963 advisers.
John Charcol ranked second, averaging 5.2 advisers per firm from 178 advisers across 34 firms. Openwork, in spite of ranking sixth by AR firm numbers, recorded the third-highest average at 4.4 advisers per firm, with 2,346 advisers across 536 firms.
JLM Mortgage Network ranked fourth, averaging 3.7 advisers per firm from 95 advisers across 26 firms, while Sandringham Financial Partners rounded out the top five with an average of 3.2 advisers per firm, based on 64 advisers across 20 firms.
Across all networks in the league table, the average stood at 2.1 mortgage advisers per firm.
Paul Day, founder and director at Network Consulting, said: “Overall, Q2 portrays a mortgage network market experiencing change on several fronts. DA and AR movement, leadership succession, investment and differing business models all provide important context beyond headline numbers, reinforcing why the direction, proposition and values of a network can be every bit as relevant as its size”.
