Research by Smart Money People said while overall satisfaction had not recovered from the peak in the first half of 2020 it had certainly improved since 2020.

Following feedback from 597 brokers on 44 lenders, Halifax emerged as the top bank and Skipton came out as the best building society.

Godiva was the top buy-to-let lender, whilst Pepper Money and Canada Life were named the best specialist and lifetime lenders respectively in Smart Money People’s twice-yearly Mortgage Lender Benchmark.

Overall, in six months, satisfaction with mortgage lenders had increased by 2.5% from 77.8% to 80.3% in the last six months – still below the peak of 82.70% in H1 2020.

The research found over half of mortgage lenders saw an increase in their overall rating.

Compared to results in H2 2020, lenders who improved often achieved greater broker satisfaction around the speed and ease of the application process. Lenders who had seen a decline in their overall rating in H1 2021 often performed more poorly around customer service, speed and underwriting.

The Mortgage Lender Benchmark also asked brokers how likely they are to recommend a lender, to calculate the Net Promoter Score, a measure of loyalty.

Scores in H1 2021 range from +70.8 to -50.0, with the average across all lenders increasing by 11.9 points to +24.7, from +12.8.

Jacqueline Dewey, CEO of Smart Money People said: “The improvements in overall satisfaction in H1 2021 represent an increase to an industry average of 80.3%, having dropped by 4.9%, an all-time low, from our last report in H2 2020.

“This increase is encouraging and shows that the mortgage industry is now recovering from the effects of the pandemic.

“Lenders now seem to be comfortable with new working patterns and are better placed to cope with the incredibly high demand we’ve seen during the pandemic.

“However, broker sentiment is not yet back to pre-pandemic levels, and the results show that there is still more work that lenders can do to improve the broker experience.

“The next six months will be interesting to watch and see what happens to broker satisfaction, as we see lenders return to offices and adapt to a more permanent state of hybrid working.”