The awards were voted for by Paradigm’s directly authorised member firms each month and the results collated over the course of their 2019/20 financial year to decide the winners.
The overall winners for 2019-20 are:
Best Overall Lender – Winner: Santander for Intermediaries. Best Residential Lender – Winner: Halifax. Best Buy-to-let Lender – Winner: Fleet Mortgages. Best Specialist Lender – Winner: Kent Reliance for Intermediaries. Best Equity Release Lender – Winner: Hodge Lifetime. Best Life Protection Provider – Winner: Legal & General. Best General Insurance Provider – Winner: Paymentshield. Best Critical Illness Provider – Winner: Guardian. Best Income Protection Provider – Winner: Royal London. Best Group Risk Provider – Winner: UNUM.
Paradigm personnel also voted for their Strategic Partners of the Year awards, a special category for businesses which are judged to have excelled in their support of the Paradigm business and members.
These Strategic Partner awards are split between both the mortgage and protection side of the business. The winners are:
Strategic Lender Partner of the Year – Coventry for Intermediaries. Strategic Provider Partner of the Year – AIG Life.
Bob Hunt, chief executive of Paradigm Mortgage Services/Paradigm Protect, said: “We’d like to congratulate all our well-deserved winners of the Paradigm Awards, who have excelled consistently in their performance and service over the last 12 months.
“We are very proud to be working with them in order to ensure our member firms have access to the very best propositions in the marketplace.
“Our growing membership are well-engaged with this process and we utilise the voting process as a means of gauging our members’ attitudes towards our partners at any given time.
“Whilst these winners were judged over the course of the last 12 months, it would be remiss of us not to thank all our lender and provider partners for their incredible efforts since lockdown was introduced.
“This has not been an easy period for anyone in the mortgage or protection space, and the progress we have made together, and the support that has been provided since the pandemic started, has clearly demonstrated the quality of the propositions we offer to our member firms.
“We feel these awards are now more important than ever, as we see the entire intermediary community adapt to the challenges faced by COVID-19 and as we move towards a new normal, and we are encouraging all of our members to get involved by voting for the lenders and providers offering the best support to both them and their clients.”
Adrian Moloney, group sales director at OneSavings Bank (Kent Reliance For Intermediaries), said: “We are delighted to win the Best Specialist Lender award for a second year in a row. It’s great to be recognised by the members of Paradigm given the special relationship we have with them and their senior team. Thank you very much from all of us at Kent Reliance For Intermediaries”
Nick Erskine, head of intermediary sales at AIG Life, added: “We are both delighted and proud to be awarded the Strategic Partner of the Year Award and thank you to everyone that voted.
“In today’s climate, more than even, successful collaboration is key to delivering great propositions and the best customer outcomes and we look forward to continuing that success with Paradigm and its member firms.”
