Strong strategic focus

The distribution of mortgages through intermediaries has never been greater, underscoring the commitment of both lenders and brokers. This is striking because, during the assessment period for the Mortgage Finance Gazette Rated for Service Awards, the lender-broker relationship was tested to the extreme. Nevertheless, in all three sectors of the Rated for Service Awards — mainstream, specialist and BTL — the highest scores were awarded for lenders’ strategic focus.

Among mainstream lenders, those that were Top Rated for Service scored highest for strategic focus. Of the top 19 mainstream lenders, an impressive 18 improved their strategic focus score from last year. It was a similar picture for specialist lenders: those Top Rated for Service also scored highly for strategic focus.

Meanwhile, of the eight highest-scoring specialist lenders, four improved their strategic focus score from that of the previous year. As for BTL lenders, those with the highest scores for strategic focus largely matched those that were Top Rated for Service in the BTL category.

Of the 18 BTL lenders that were scored for the Mortgage Finance Gazette Rated for Service Awards, 12 managed to improve their rating for strategic focus compared to last year’s results.

Prevailing on products

During the assessment period for these awards, borrower affordability became a major concern for lenders as the soaring cost of living and rising mortgage rates took hold. Whether faced with a first-time buyer (FTB) or with a BTL investor trying to remortgage, lenders had to become creative with new product offerings, and — in some cases — break the mould. Against this backdrop, being awarded Top Rated for Service or Rated for Service on products is a commendable achievement.

The mainstream sector led the way on product scores, with the overall Top Rated for Service and Rated for Service lenders performing well compared to other business areas. Eleven of the 19 award-winning mainstream lenders improved their product scores from last year.

The product scores for specialist lenders were noticeably lower than those for the mainstream market. This may reflect the complexity of some borrowers’ needs and the ability of lenders to meet broker expectations. Nevertheless, four of the eight top-performing specialist lenders improved their scores.

Despite increasing challenges in the BTL sector, product scoring in this market was on a par with, if not higher than, that of some other business areas — a reflection of lenders’ hard work and the way they adapted to the new, higher interest-rate environment. Of the 18 top-scoring BTL lenders, eight improved their product scores from last year’s inaugural Rated for Service Awards, with only marginal dips by the rest.

Click here to see all of the results

Mortgage Strategy has published the MFG Rated for Service Awards supplement, with all the results and analysis available in both print and digital formats.

Please click the cover to view the digital issue.

For lenders interested in details of logo and data licence enquiries, please contact Steven Ray or Aron Marusic

The post Mortgage Finance Gazette Rated for Service Awards 2024 – service area results, part 1 appeared first on Mortgage Strategy.

Welcome to the second Mortgage Finance Gazette Rated for Service Awards, in association with The Openwork Partnership. Once again, the awards acknowledge and applaud lenders that have supplied outstanding service to brokers. Our accompanying analysis provides brokers with insight into how they rate the service from their lenders, and offers lenders intelligence on the service areas where they are hitting the mark, or leaving room for improvement.

By the side of brokers

A lender’s sales support and communication can make or break its overall proposition. Consistent, prompt and dependable responses to queries are invaluable to intermediaries, and the ease with which they can communicate with a lender is crucial when submitting applications.

Mainstream lenders performed well in this category, with 12 out of 19 improving their score from last year. Of those that were either Top Rated for Service or Rated for Service overall, all of them were acknowledged too for sales support and communication.

It was a similar scenario for specialist lenders, with almost all of those awarded for their overall service also recognised for sales support and communication. The scoring was more varied for BTL lenders, where 10 of the 18 highest-scoring lenders increased their score from last year’s ratings.

Across all three sectors, lenders achieved good scores in the important category of sales support and communication. This bodes well for brokers as well as lenders, particularly in their ability to tackle the challenges of a demanding market.

A consistent approach to underwriting

A reliable yet flexible underwriting service was crucial for brokers during the Rated for Service assessment period as they fought to secure fixed rates for clients in a rising interest-rate environment. Lenders with a more personalised approach to underwriting have always won favour, but even more so when many borrowers’ finances are under increased pressure from rising bills and interest rates.

On the whole, mainstream lenders performed well in this category and only five of the 19 lenders saw a fall in their score compared to last year. However, there was slightly more fluctuation in this set of scores than in some other business areas, with a greater gap between the lowest- and highest-scoring lenders.

Scores were fairly consistent for specialist lenders’ underwriting, with just two having a very small dip compared to their previous rating. Although there is a general assumption that specialist lenders are more flexible with underwriting, the overall scores for specialist lenders were considerably lower than those for mainstream lenders. This could reflect the inability of lenders to assist borrowers whose credit profile had deteriorated during the cost-of-living crisis.

Lenders in the BTL sector performed well on underwriting and case processing. Eleven lenders improved their score from the previous Rated for Service Awards, indicating that, even though the market faced challenges, brokers were happy generally with the way their cases had been handled.

Excelling in technology

A robust digital offering from mortgage lenders can benefit not only brokers but also their clients. Likewise, when a system is slow or a lender unreachable, this can reflect poorly on brokers, which is why lender technology sometimes evokes strong emotions.

Those lenders Top Rated for Service or Rated for Service on tech have won over brokers with their systems and approach — a considerable accomplishment. Yet, collectively, lenders did not perform as well in this category as they did in the inaugural Rated for Service Awards.

Eleven of the 19 top-scoring mainstream lenders had a fall in their tech score compared to last year. Tech appears to be an area where, once again, the size of the lender does not correlate with the quality of the system. A number of smaller mainstream lenders were Rated for Service for their tech.

In the specialist market, four of the eight Top Rated for Service or Rated for Service lenders had a fall in their score compared to last year, albeit smaller declines than in the mainstream market.

The BTL lenders awarded Top Rated for Service or Rated for Service on their tech closely mirrored the lenders that received an overall accolade for service in that sector, with only nine of the 18 lenders seeing a fall in their score.

The overall drop in tech scores across the three sectors could be attributed to shortcomings in lenders’ digital communications; or to being surpassed by the development of other lenders’ tech systems. It may not be the result of any significant changes to their own systems. Nevertheless, those lenders that are Top Rated for Service or Rated for Service on tech should be commended for their excellence.

Click here to see all of the results

Mortgage Strategy has published the MFG Rated for Service Awards supplement, with all the results and analysis available in both print and digital formats.

Please click the cover to view the digital issue.

For lenders interested in details of logo and data licence enquiries, please contact Steven Ray or Aron Marusic

The post Mortgage Finance Gazette Rated for Service Awards 2024 – service area results, part 2 appeared first on Mortgage Strategy.

Some of the most revealing insights from the previous Mortgage Finance Gazette Rated for Service Awards derived from the breakdown of lender scores by case number and broker status. While this time one might expect some small, subtle changes in perspective among brokers, once again the scores reveal significant differences in lender service depending on whether a broker is directly authorised (DA) or an appointed representative (AR).

In our inaugural survey last year, DAs scored lenders more favourably than ARs did within all three markets — mainstream, specialist and buy-to-let (BTL). This time the reverse is true, with ARs giving higher scores across the board. ARs made up 56% of those who rated lenders’ service, compared to 52% previously, with DAs accounting for 44%, down from 48% last time.

Of the 38 lenders that were scored in the mainstream market, just six received higher ratings for their overall service from DAs rather than from ARs. The previous Rated for Service scores saw mainstream lenders perform better in DAs’ estimation in three of the five key areas: strategic focus, sales support and communications, and underwriting and case processing. This time, lenders performed better in ARs’ estimation in all five business areas.

When the specialist lender scores were unravelled, only five of the 17 assessed lenders were rated more highly by DAs. ARs scored specialist lenders higher than DAs did in all five business areas. In last year’s survey the reverse was true.

In the BTL market, of the 36 lenders that were scored only nine received better ratings from DAs for their overall service. Again, ARs scored lenders more highly than DAs did in all five BTL business areas — a direct reversal of the previous scores, where DAs scored higher than ARs did in all five areas.

The highest standalone AR score was awarded to mainstream lenders for their products, with the lowest score given to specialist lenders, also for their products. The highest DA score was awarded to mainstream lenders for strategic focus and the lowest was given to specialist lenders for their underwriting and case processing.

These scores offer interesting insights for lenders and networks in terms of how the two demographics view the service they receive.

Analysis by case size

When we look at service scores based on number of cases, this is even more intriguing. The lender scores have been analysed for brokers who submit either one to five cases per month, six to 10 cases, 11 to 20 cases or more than 20 cases. There is a clear pattern: the more cases a broker submits to a lender, the less favourable the score.

As with the scoring for DAs and ARs, these results are a direct reversal of the previous year. Last year, in both the mainstream and the BTL sectors, lenders received the lowest scores from brokers who had submitted the fewest cases — one to five per month. Specialist lenders scored the lowest among those who had submitted between 11 and 20 cases.

This year in every sector — mainstream, specialist and BTL — the scores were highest from brokers who submitted one to five cases per month, and lowest from those who submitted more than 20 cases.

Furthermore, mainstream lenders scored the best in all five business areas among brokers who submitted the fewest cases. The second-highest scores were given by those who submitted between 11 and 20 cases, followed by those who submitted between six and 10 cases.

Of the 38 mainstream lenders, only four received their highest scores from brokers who submitted the most business. This was mirrored in the specialist sector, where brokers who submitted the fewest cases gave the highest scores, followed by those who submitted between 11 and 20 cases, then six and 10, and finally more than 20.

Once again, brokers who submitted the fewest cases gave lenders the highest scores in all five business areas. Just two of the 17 specialist lenders received their highest scores from brokers who submitted more than 20 cases.

The pattern was the same for BTL lenders. However, the scores were much closer in this sector, with eight of the 36 lenders receiving their highest scores from brokers who submitted more than 20 cases per month.

The trend across all sectors — of higher scores being awarded by brokers with fewer cases — may be explained by the frustration of brokers who had attempted to submit a lot of cases during particularly busy periods, catching a lender when it was struggling with service delays.

The results are surprising, however, because one might have expected that the more cases a broker submitted, the more familiar both parties would become with each other’s way of working.

Click here to see all of the results

Mortgage Strategy has published the MFG Rated for Service Awards supplement, with all the results and analysis available in both print and digital formats.

Please click the cover to view the digital issue.

For lenders interested in details of logo and data licence enquiries, please contact Steven Ray or Aron Marusic

The post Mortgage Finance Gazette Rated for Service Awards 2024 – broker analysis appeared first on Mortgage Strategy.

Why does The Openwork Partnership sponsor the Rated for Service Awards?
When I wrote my submission for last year’s awards supplement, I said that I hoped 2023 would provide a more stable operating environment for brokers than 2022. That was clearly wishful thinking, as it turned out to be another year of massive change.

Given this backdrop, understanding broker priorities, recognising service excellence and identifying opportunities to drive forward industry standards remain critical. That is exactly what Rated for Service is trying to achieve. The survey is also unique in that it provides data from across the UK industry, including large and small producers, specialist and generalists, directly authorised advisers and appointed representatives.

The Openwork Partnership is therefore proud to sponsor the awards again. We will ensure that within our regular lender review meetings we are talking through the results, celebrating successes, but also holding feet to the fire of the lenders that have the most work to do to deliver excellence for brokers.

Overall, what do you think of the results?
I’m really pleased. 2023 was another tough year for everyone, so the fact that more advisers than last time participated in the survey and more lenders were recognised as either Top Rated or Rated has to be a good outcome for advisers and clients.

Are there any areas that you would highlight as most positive?
The scores improved in most areas, which is testament to the effort that lenders have put in to improving their propositions. This is particularly true in underwriting and case processing, which pleasingly saw the strongest improvement. The fact that the highest scores overall were in Strategic Focus is also reassuring as it implies that brokers are recognising the importance lenders are placing on the intermediary sector.

Are there any areas where the industry hasn’t moved forward?
Two areas stood out. First, BTL, where the scores for eight of the nine Top Rated lenders fell back, whereas seven of the eight Rated lenders improved. Market conditions in BTL were tough in 2023, but the results imply that there is more work to do if the Top Rated players want to retain their crown next year.
The second area that stood out in terms of scores going backwards was technology. It is hard to pin down the reasons for that, but the verbatims suggest only limited progress was made by lenders with older technology.

With the Consumer Duty and the Mortgage Charter to contend with, I suspect IT resources were also diverted from improving the adviser experience. Hopefully that will change in the year ahead.

What are the most valuable survey outputs?
The quantitative scores are hugely valuable as they provide lenders with benchmark performance data, so that they can assess how they are performing versus their peers. However, for me, the most valuable information is the insights provided by brokers in their verbatim comments, as it’s these that provide the context for the scores and make the numbers come alive. Brokers provided almost 1,200 verbatims,
of which 54% were positive and 46% negative. The ratio of positive to negative comments is also an interesting barometer of broker sentiment, with the strongest-performing lenders generating a ratio of 9:1 in favour of positive comments, and the weakest a ratio of 9:1 in favour of negatives. That’s a goldmine of insight for lenders to get their teeth into!

Paul Sherman is Mortgage proposition director at The Openwork Partnership

Click here to see all of the results

Mortgage Strategy has published the MFG Rated for Service Awards supplement, with all the results and analysis available in both print and digital formats.

Please click the cover to view the digital issue.

For lenders interested in details of logo and data licence enquiries, please contact Steven Ray or Aron Marusic

The post Mortgage Finance Gazette Rated for Service Awards 2024 – A good result for advisers and clients appeared first on Mortgage Strategy.