Over four in five brokers believe that business development managers (BDMs) are playing a vital role in the mortgage industry, research from Smart Money People has indicated.

The financial services review site found that 83.7% of brokers either agreed or strongly agreed that BDMs play a vital role, while only 5.5% disagreed or strongly disagreed, with the rest unsure.

These findings were part of Smart Money People’s H2 2023 Mortgage Lender Benchmark covering mortgage broker opinions on UK mortgage lenders for the second half of 2023. The latest edition comprised feedback from over 790 mortgage brokers, providing 3,666 individual pieces of feedback on 105 lenders.

Smart Money People found that 32.2% of brokers said they typically first hear about a lender and what they offer from BDMs, with only product sourcing scoring higher (35%).

Furthermore, when asking brokers what they’d consider as their most valuable form of support service to serve clients effectively, 37.3% of respondents cited BDMs, beating other services such as dedicated phone lines, webinars and live chat.

While the slight majority of brokers (43.3%) were happy, over a third (36.4%) said they didn’t feel their lender gave enough BDM support, with the rest unsure.

“It’s clear that brokers still clearly value the role of BDMs and although they understand the need for lenders to evolve, moving too quickly to a hybrid approach is a concern and can damage that lender’s relationship with its brokers,” said Smart Money People CEO, Jacqueline Dewey.

“Lenders who can excel in providing superior BDM support with BDMs who have good case knowledge, along with being readily available and accessible will stand out from the crowd.”

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