However, broker satisfaction did not recover to the pre-pandemic peak of 82.7% seen at the start of 2020.

The Mortgage Lender Benchmark also asked brokers how likely they were to recommend a lender, calculating a net promoter score.

The average score for all lenders within the benchmark increased by 2.4 to 27.1.

The peak net promoter score for all lenders was recorded at the start of 2020 at 30.8.

Specialist lenders performed the strongest of all sectors for an improvement to their net promoter score in the eyes of brokers, registering an increase of 15.8 from negative 3.5 in H1 2021 to 12.3 in H2 2021.

Jacqueline Dewey, chief executive of Smart Money People, said: “The sustained increased in broker satisfaction with lenders for H2 2021 shows that the mortgage industry is now returning to normality following the perfect storm of disruption to normal working patterns over the last two years and an unprecedented level of demand for mortgages in 2021.

“New data released from UK Finance this week has suggested that levels of lending will be at their highest since 2007, and the findings today suggest that in the eyes of mortgage brokers, lenders have responded incredibly well.”