Building societies lead sector rankings as overall satisfaction with lenders holds steady in latest broker survey
Halifax has been named the best overall broker experience lender for the second consecutive period in Smart Money People's H1 2026 Mortgage Lender Benchmark, which draws on feedback from 980 brokers across 510 firms covering 126 lenders — equivalent to 98.1% of UK gross mortgage lending.
The report, now in its 16th edition, found that overall satisfaction with mortgage lenders remained broadly stable at 4.22 out of 5, a marginal decline of 0.03 on the H2 2025 figure.
The overall Broker Experience Index — which combines metrics including speed, service, digital tools and support — slipped slightly to 70.2 from 71 in the previous period.
The building society sector posted the highest Broker Experience Index score of 73.6, displacing mainstream lenders, who ranked second at 70.8. The average Net Promoter Score across all lenders stood at +40.9, down 0.4 points from H2 2025.
In addition to retaining the best overall broker experience title, Halifax was again recognised as the best mainstream lender. Nationwide Building Society was named best building society lender, while Pure Retirement retained its position as best later life lender.
Pepper Money held on to the top specialist lender accolade from H2 2025, BM Solutions was again named best buy-to-let specialist, Allica Bank retained its position as top bridging and commercial lender, while Atom bank was once more recognised as the best digital-first lender.
"Despite the rate volatility that occurred during the first half of this year, it's clear from these results that lenders across the sector broadly maintained their high standards to support brokers and their customers during uncertain times," said Jake Sandford (pictured right), head of data and analytics at Smart Money People.
"However, the slight dip in metrics across the board alludes to the issues faced by the industry in the first half of this year and as always, undoubtedly lessons will have been learnt by the lending community this time around."
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