It has been another trying 12 months for mainstream lenders as affordability pressures continued to burden borrowers, and the Bank of England (BoE) base rate did not fall as quickly as some had hoped.
In response to this, insight from Mortgage Finance Gazette’s latest Rated for Service study found mainstream lenders have rolled out new and inventive products to help meet the needs of brokers and their clients – especially in the first-time buyer (FTB) market. Some have also eased their lending criteria to better support a broader range of borrowers.
There has been a greater push towards the use of technology by some lenders, employing tools such as artificial intelligence (AI) in a bid to simplify processes and ease brokers’ workload.
Those mainstream lenders recognised in Rated for Service have once again excelled, with many putting in a strong performance across multiple categories.
As with the previous survey, 39 lenders were assessed in the mainstream category. Ten of these led the pack, earning Top Rated for Service status, while nine others were recognised for their achievements with Rated for Service.
There has been little change at the top of the table, with all lenders that earned Top Rated recognition last year retaining their positions. However, the Rated category has acquired some new names, including Barclays and fintech lender MPowered Mortgages.
Smaller lenders again demonstrated their ability to hold their own against larger lenders. Leeds Building Society, the 11th-largest lender, for example, earned a Top Rated accolade alongside Halifax – part of the UK’s largest residential lender.
Building societies and their subsidiaries are well represented across both Rated and Top Rated categories. Overall, those lenders that received the Top Rated and Rated accolades demonstrated consistency across all categories, with only a handful falling short in specific areas.
Strategic focus received the highest overall standout score across mainstream lenders, while technology remained the area where the greatest improvements were still needed.
Please see the mainstream lender dashboard below.
All the data for the Mortgage Finance Gazette Rated for Service 2025 is now accessed via a dashboard. All the ratings data for each lender category, and all the rankings data for each assessment area, is available from the past three years. Lenders’ performance in any of the five assessment areas can now be ranked from highest to lowest across the entire lender panel for each year, and filtered based on broker type and case load.
This year we have also added factor analysis for each lender category, so lenders will be able to benchmark performance against the average score for each assessment area, and against a select panel of their competitors (max. of five lenders).
The dashboard brings an unprecedented level of clarity to lender service levels for the broker community. If you have any comments or want to feed back to us about the dashboard, please email: [email protected]
To display the full dashboard please click here
Please click on the cover below to see the print supplement of Mortage Finance Gazette Rated For Service 2025.
