Overall satisfaction with lenders among the mortgage broker community has fallen slightly, new research published by Smart Money People has revealed.

Despite a slight dip from the record broker satisfaction levels seen in H1 this year, the financial services review site said its latest results have still remained “fairly stable”, as lenders appear to have largely coped with the ongoing market turbulence caused by further rate rises in the latter part of the year.

Smart Money People published its findings in its Mortgage Lender Benchmark covering mortgage broker opinions on UK mortgage lenders for the second half of 2023. The bi-annual independent research study, the eleventh edition of the report, comprised feedback from over 790 mortgage brokers, providing 3,666 reviews on 105 lenders.

Based on the H1 2023 findings, overall satisfaction with lenders has slightly decreased by 0.5% to 82.9%.

Building societies were again the top-rated sector for broker satisfaction but this was down 1.0% to 84.7%. Broker ratings for specialist lenders were down 2.4% to 79.6% and for lifetime lenders, ratings were up 3.4%, to stand at 83.6%.

“Despite volatility and pressures across all aspects of the mortgage process continuing into the second half of the year, the results in our eleventh edition of the Mortgage Lender Benchmark are encouraging,” said Smart Money People CEO, Jacqueline Dewey.

According to the findings, the average net promoter score for all lenders was marginally down 1.8 points on the H1 2023 figure at +32.2. These scores ranged from -26.7 and +69.1 for the lenders analysed in the report.

Atom bank was named the best bank by brokers, while Coventry Building Society was named the best building society lender. The best lifetime provider was Canada Life, the best buy-to-let lender was Metro Bank, while Interbay and Landbay were jointly recognised as the top specialist lenders.

“Amidst a backdrop of challenging market conditions, lenders have continued to deliver a great service and experience to brokers and their customers, with just a small dip in the record overall satisfaction scores seen in H1 2023,” Dewey added.

“With recent market talk of rate rises potentially coming to an end, it’ll be interesting to see how this continues into next year.”

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