Britain’s mortgage brokers voted in the their thousands for the 2025 FT Adviser Financial Adviser Service Awards.
Advisers and brokers scored mortgage lenders on the quality of their service to them and to their clients amid a difficult year of persistently high inflation, uncertain wage growth and fluctuating interest rates.
Last year, FT Adviser highlighted the paucity of some providers’ service, which in years past has been lamentable for many across various categories, as judged by FT Adviser readers.
Following our push last year, the number of five-star providers in the Mortgages category rose from 12 to 13.
This was marked by specialist lender Pure Retirement rising from four stars to five stars over the year, as voted for by financial advisers.
But the biggest leap came in the four-star category, with 17 providers making the cut this year, compared with just 12 in 2024.
This showed remarkable progress from lenders to improve their service provision to brokers and clients.
As mentioned at the Awards last week at the Natural History Museum, FT Adviser will keep the pressure on to make sure 2026 is an even better year.
Pledge for perfection
One case we highlighted last year was that of Barclays. The last time it achieved a high score of 4 stars was 1999.
Since 2000, it has consistently scored 1 star every year for the past 24 years, except two years when it scored 2 — 2013 and in 2024.
This year, it achieved a higher number of votes and rose up the rankings to score three stars — a sign things are definitely improving in terms of service to brokers.
Our ambition is to be the number one choice for brokers, and so a five-star rating is what we want to be achieving. Watch this space
And the lender has pledged to be the “number one choice” for brokers.
Roland McCormack, head of intermediaries at Barclays UK, told FT Adviser: “These ratings are incredibly valuable to us as they come directly from brokers, our most important partners in the mortgage market.
“We’ve taken a very deliberate but simple approach in the last year: listening more to intermediaries and then delivering what they’re asking for.”
He said this has ranged from hiring more dedicated relationship managers to a complete overhaul of Barclays’ technology platform, making it easier to deal with the lender and aiming to deliver better outcomes for homebuyers.
McCormack added: “I’m proud of our team, the progress made, and the fact that these and other changes we’ve made are clearly resonating. But we’re not complacent and know there’s more we can do to improve.
“Our ambition is to be the number one choice for brokers, and so a five-star rating is what we want to be achieving. Watch this space.”
For the Mortgage Provider category, advisers are asked to score providers out of 10, based on the following metrics:
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Speed of processing: Fast, efficient administration, prompt requests, prompt decisions
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Feedback: Regular feedback, updates, copy correspondence, status reports, communication after completion
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Product knowledge: Trained mortgage advisers, knowledgeable staff, understanding of mortgage criteria
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Reliability: Access to right people, returning calls, friendly, helpful attitude, clear and precise
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Flexible criteria and fair value; treating cases on their own merits, when the application is outside normal criteria; intelligent underwriting, flexibility for distressed or vulnerable clients.
Advisers and providers will be in demand for legal and technical support on mortgage lending as new rules come into being.
It is likely that there will be questions from the industry on whatever the autumn Budget 2025 has in store, especially for first-time buyers.
Indeed, broker Emma Jones, managing director at Runcorn-based Whenthebanksaysno.co.uk, said unless the government commits to buying new homes, there will still be issues in getting people on to the housing ladder.
But she said lenders were generally doing their best. Jones said: “Until we fix [the need to build more homes], the figures will simply get worse, despite the fact that lenders are doing their best to find new ways to get people on to the ladder.”
For now, here are the lists of the five-and four-star winners from the 2025 FT Adviser Financial Adviser Service Awards:
Five Stars
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Halifax Intermediaries
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Nationwide Building Society
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BM Solutions
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Pure Retirement
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The Mortgage Works (TMW)
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Coventry For Intermediaries
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The West Brom
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Accord Mortgages
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Progressive Building Society
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Skipton Intermediaries
Four Stars
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Pepper Money
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Santander for Intermediaries
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Legal & General Home Finance
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Gen H
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Principality Building Society
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Aviva
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Leeds Building Society
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Newcastle Intermediaries
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Yorkshire Building Society
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LV
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Nottingham BS
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Virgin Money
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Bank of Ireland
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Foundation Home Loans
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Family Building Society
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more2life
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Scottish Widows Bank