Best Mortgage Lenders

CFI Group Inc. announced Tuesday the results of its Mortgage Origination Satisfaction Program survey, which measured customer experience and satisfaction with the loan origination process for the top industry players.

The respondents rated their satisfaction with lenders based on specific experiences, including mortgage loan documentation, variety of products, the mortgage loan closing process and service provided by the lender’s representative, CFI said. Respondents also rated lenders on their perception of them as trustworthy partner, who values them as a customer, as well as on the likelihood to use the lender again and recommend the banker.

SunTrust received the highest score — 85 — in overall customer satisfaction, followed by Bank of America, National City and Washington Mutual, each with a score of 84. Wachovia received an 83, Wells Fargo an 81, Chase Manhattan and Countrywide a 78, CitiMortgage/Citibank a 77 and GreenPoint was last with a 72.

CFI pointed out that mortgage lenders’ overall satisfaction score of 82 is a strong rating when benchmarked against that of 73 of financial services generally.

“In today’s highly competitive mortgage market, customer satisfaction and its impact on cross-selling opportunities, customer referrals and retention, is key to a lender’s success,” said Rodger Park, CFI senior consultant, in the announcement. “MOS survey results indicate that while customers are generally very satisfied with their mortgage lender, there is room for improvement, especially related to mortgage products and the loan’s documentation.”

When rated on the variety of products they make available, lenders received a satisfaction score of 80, the lowest rating in the MOS results. Respondents specifically cited the “variety of loans presented to you” as a driver of the score, according to the announcement.

SunTrust and National City were the most likely to be used again, as respondents gave them each the high score of 87 in such category. WaMu scored an 86, Wachovia and Wells Fargo tied with an 85. BoA followed with one point less and then Countrywide came in with an 80. CitiMortgage and Chase each had scores in the high 70s and GreenPoint was last with a 64, according to the survey report.

As for the likelihood that respondents would recommend the lender they used, National City outranked the others with a score of 88, CFI said. Scores ranging from 81 to 86 were achieved by SunTrust and WaMu, who were at the top of that range, followed by Wachovia, BoA, Wells Fargo and Chase. Countrywide and CitiMortgage received scores in the high 70s and GreenPoint was again left behind with a 64, the report said.

The survey was reportedly based on phone and online responses of more than 2600 purchase money and refinance borrowers who obtained a loan on Oct. 1, 2004, or later from the lender retail channel.

“Borrowers who worked with a Realtor rate their satisfaction with their lender dramatically higher than those who do not use a Realtor,” CFI said.