Pricing and time to approval are the critical considerations for mortgage brokers and their customers when it comes to choosing a lender, according to a broker survey.

Macquarie Securities has published the findings of its latest annual Mortgage Broker Survey, reporting that the lenders with the fastest approval times took an average of six to 10 days. ING Bank, Pepper, Liberty and Macquarie Bank are among the fastest.

Brokers made it clear that ANZ and Westpac are losing business because they each take an average of 23 days to approve a loan. Their systems were “inferior” and their processes “cumbersome”.

Other lenders with slow approval times were St George, at an average of 24 days, Bank of Queensland (21 days) and Suncorp Bank (19 days).

Commonwealth Bank has the best approval time performance among the big banks. Brokers said NAB is narrowing the gap.

While most lenders say they are working to improve their approval times, survey respondents said times have slipped this year as lenders struggle to cope with increased application volumes in a hot housing market.

The average approval time for all lenders increased from 13 days in 2020 to 17 days in the latest survey.

The exception was ANZ, which reduced its time to approval from more than 30 days in 2020 to 23 days.

There is little consumer loyalty. Macquarie asked whether a prior relationship with a lender was a consideration for customers. It found that customers are not attached to their existing financial institution and are prepared to move for better price and service.

Broker perceptions of NAB, Bankwest, AMP Bank, Suncorp Bank and Bank of Queensland mortgage processing systems have improved, compared with the previous survey.