Broker-led ratings system launches amid growing scrutiny of specialist finance lender performance

The specialist finance industry is set to gain a new way to measure lender performance with the launch of the M Stars Programme, a broker-led ratings platform that aims to provide an independent assessment of service standards across the market.

The initiative was developed in response to growing concerns around trust and transparency in the specialist lending market. Shaped by industry peers, including figures from across the compliance and legal community, it aims to shift the balance by giving brokers — the lenders’ clients — the opportunity to assess performance based on their real-world experiences.

By drawing on verified data and factual information from genuine transactions, the programme is designed to provide an evidence-led assessment of lender performance and create what its founders believe will be one of the industry’s most credible and meaningful accolades.

Operational control and oversight will be handed entirely to industry veteran Ray Cohen, supported by an independent panel of sector experts who will serve as adjudicators.

“This initiative is designed to provide independent assessment of lenders’ service performance with criteria set to ensure that it works for all types of firms, small to large, and bridging to development finance,” said Ray.

“There is careful monitoring with sense checks in place to ensure the results are fair.

“As the programme develops, this will provide more regular reporting on service standards.

“This should be of help to both the intermediary community and the lenders themselves, by way of performance feedback.

“If lenders use this to improve their service, it can only be a good thing for consumers.”

Jonathan Newman, senior partner at Brightstone Law and fellow adjudicator, added: “Bridging lenders interact with a number of stakeholders, but tend to operate in silos.

“So, an independent data-based benchmark available to all — lenders, brokers, surveyors, and the like — is a real innovation in the sector.

“I expect it to drive better outcomes for customers but, equally as important, this will be an invaluable source of real feedback, which lenders can take away to concentrate on aspects of their offering, as well as benchmarking themselves against their peers and the industry as a whole.”

The scheme aims to create an independent industry standard for service excellence.

The project comes at a time when confidence in parts of the specialist property lending sector has been tested by a series of high-profile disruptions, funding issues, and lender failures.

For brokers, the consequences have been tangible: delayed completions, increased due diligence requirements, and a growing burden of assessing which lenders remain reliable counterparties.

“The most common question we receive is surprisingly simple," a spokesperson for the M Stars Programme said. "Who can I trust?"

“It is a question that has become increasingly difficult to answer.

Awards programmes, broker surveys, and league tables offer useful indicators of market standing, but they are inherently retrospective. They capture performance at a particular moment in time, while the underlying businesses continue to evolve.

Management teams change. Funding structures shift. Credit appetite expands and contracts. Service levels improve, or deteriorate.

"Today's angel can become tomorrow's demon."

The M Stars Programme has been designed to address that gap.

The programme relies on a network of approved, anonymous broker Evaluators who submit assessments of lenders based on real-world transactions. Performance is measured quarterly across a range of criteria, including communication, underwriting quality, completion times, responsiveness, customer understanding, and lending appetite.

The data is then analysed by an AI-driven system developed under Ray’s supervision. According to the founders, the platform is designed to identify anomalies, discount outlier submissions, and prioritise consistent performance trends over individual experiences.

To avoid marketing bias, the objective is not to identify the lender with the most market visibility, but the lender that consistently delivers.

In an industry where reputation is often shaped by marketing budgets, conference presence and deal announcements, the founders argue there remains limited independent data on operational performance.

That absence has become more apparent as recent market events have exposed the gap between perception and reality.

"Trust is the industry's most valuable currency," a spokesperson for M Stars Programme said. "Once it's damaged, rebuilding it is significantly harder than generating new business."

Participation in the programme is restricted to approved brokers. Applicants must undergo a vetting process, sign confidentiality agreements, and contribute reviews across a minimum number of lenders. Individual submissions remain anonymous, while ratings are generated only after sufficient volumes of data have been collected.

The resulting accreditation system awards lenders between one and three stars, subject to annual review and ongoing monitoring.

Unlike traditional awards, accreditation is not permanent. Lenders can lose their status if evidence emerges of serious misconduct or material deterioration in service standards.

The model represents an attempt to introduce a more continuous form of accountability into a market that has historically relied heavily on relationships, reputation, and anecdotal feedback.

The programme's success will depend largely on participation levels and the willingness of intermediaries to contribute data consistently over time.

What is clear, however, is that the sector's appetite for greater transparency appears to be growing.

For a market built on trust, the M Stars Programme is effectively making a wager: that enough brokers are prepared to help measure it.

Applications for broker Evaluators are now open and brokers can register here.