Over the past year, the mortgage market has seen the usual unexpected twists and turns.
Interest rates have fallen and lenders have relaxed their affordability stress tests based on guidance from the Financial Conduct Authority.
Still, economic pressures and rising costs of living have left the market feeling challenging for some brokers, lenders and borrowers. Still, the results of MNM’s Rated for Service 2026 show that there is much to celebrate. Many of the lenders that excelled last year remain at the forefront of the Top Rated and Rated for Service categories, along with some new faces.
As is often said – and as the results show – good service goes beyond just offering competitive rates. The broker comments section of the survey shows that effective communication is one of the qualities brokers value most in lenders.
Respondents’ positive comments about lenders’ overall service – such as “Incredible, fast and easy to navigate system” and “The epitome of common sense lending” – are in stark contrast to brokers’ frustrations, such as “You can’t even talk to them on the phone” and “Just terrible – slow and no understanding of real life.”
The brokers’ comments show how wide the gap in service standards between lenders can be.
This year’s scores differ from last year’s in several respects. In the mainstream market, strategic focus has improved, as has sales support and communication, along with technology. However, acceptance and file processing, in addition to the product range, have decreased slightly.
There is also more variation in scores for lenders in the regular domain. Previously, beyond the 19 lenders with the highest rating or rating for service, only six additional lenders were recognized in individual service categories, earning a combined eight awards. Eight additional lenders were recognized this year, achieving a total of thirteen awards.
In the specialist market, scores in all service areas except technology have improved compared to the previous Rated for Service rankings. This is surprising because lenders could have been expected to have invested in their technology systems over the past twelve months.
It is difficult to determine whether the lower technology score is a result of a lack of investment in legacy platforms or the introduction of new systems that do not fully meet the needs of brokers.
In the buy-to-let (BTL) sector, scores in all five service areas are lower than in Rated for Service 2025. This can be explained by the recovery in BTL activity last year, with higher volumes putting pressure on lenders’ ability to maintain service standards.
Additionally, brokers may have scrutinized products and services more closely than in previous years, leading to tougher scores. BTL has also experienced more fluctuations in accolades from lenders outside the top 18 rated and rated for service recipients. A further five lenders received rankings this year, with a total of ten individual service awards. Last year, only four additional lenders were recognized, also resulting in 10 awards.
Across all sectors, this year’s Rated for Service rankings show that more and more lenders are emerging as challengers to the top established names, whether they are building societies or smaller niche lenders.
This could indicate that, in an increasingly competitive market, lenders are focusing on specific service areas where they can excel; Whether it’s launching unique products, taking a more manual, personalized approach to underwriting complex cases, or investing in newer, advanced systems that can rival some lenders’ older platforms.
MNM’s Rated for Service 2026 allows lenders to once again compare themselves to their peers and discover how they are viewed through the eyes of brokers. There is much to celebrate and plenty for lenders to discover in this year’s findings.
All Rated for Service data can be accessed through the dashboard. To access the ranking data for each rating area, simply select the Ranking button for the lender category of your choice. You can then reorder the data based on the ranking for each rating area to determine the best/worst performing lender.
Factor analysis is also available for each lender category to enable benchmarking of a panel of lenders against the average score for each rating area. This can be filtered by broker type and caseload, providing tailored benchmarks for individual brokers (up to five lenders).
View the full dashboard below: