The gender pay gap has never been noticed, and the financial services sector is one of the worst offenders. The mortgage market is no exception.
At least, this is the case with most mortgage lenders, and because of their size, this information needs to be reported. This picture is much less happening for brokerage firms, which are usually not enough to announce any salary or bonus gap between genders – Equality activists tell this Mortgage Strategy They want to change.
The gender pay gap will not disappear on its own. We need consistent action
So, why is the gender pay gap between big lenders in the UK so big? What are they doing to close it? How do we make a difference in how our agents compensate men and women?
Big lender, big gap
According to the UK trade agency (Trade Bodict), the 10 largest lenders control over 83% of outstanding mortgages between them. They are a great place to start when figuring out how bad the gender pay gap is in the mortgage market.
Not only are the salary gaps on all these large lenders far above the national average, but for many, the gaps are widening and the bonuses are even worse.
More suggestions roles can play an important role in creating imbalances than administrators
According to the Office for National Statistics, the average hourly gender pay gap for all industries in the UK is 7% in 2024, down from 7.5% in 2023. These are the latest figures available.
However, all the top ten mortgage lenders paid at least 24.7% more to men than women, on average in 2024/25, the most recent reporting year. HSBC has the largest gender pay gap at 44.9%.
The second largest is Virgin Money, which is 35.7% in 2024. Lenders do not have to report their salary gap data, but are voluntary and based on calendar year rather than fiscal year.
Next is Lloyds Banking Group (35.5% in 2024/25, respectively), Coventry Building Association (31.5%), Barclays Bank (30.6%), National (29.2%) (29.2%), Natworth Group (27.7%), Santander (27.6%), and then TSB and Tsb and Yorkshire BS, all at 24.7%.
Half of these lenders have increased the salary gap, i.e., national (6.8%), TSB (2.8%), Lloyds (2.7%), Virgin Money (1.1%) and Yorkshire BS (0.9%).
The other half narrowed the salary gap from the previous year, especially HSBC (3.4%), Natwest Group (2.3%), Santander (1.1%), Barclays (1%) and Coventry BS (0.2%).
We are continuing to explore ways to better understand the gender pay gap
The gender wage gap on large lenders looks bad, but their bonus gap is much different.
The largest median bonus gap of 2024/25 was that of HSBC, at 70.7%, followed by Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group (both at 56.8%), Santander (40.1%), Coventry BS (36.1%), Nationwide (35.9%), Virgin Money (33.7%), Yorkshire BS (29.7%), TSB (25.2%) and Natwest Group (17.7%).
The reasons for the gender pay gap in the mortgage sector vary, but they have more men than women who occupy high-paying leadership and technical positions.
A UK financial spokesperson said: “The financial services sector is committed to improving its gender pay gap and recognizes that there is more work to be done.
“One of the issues affecting the salary gap figures is that women are often underrepresented in senior positions. UK Finance and many of our members are signatories to the HM Treasury women in the Financial Charter, who promise to support the development of women in senior positions.”
Penny East, CEO of the Fawcett Association, Women’s Rights Charity, told Mortgage Strategy This problem is a special issue in financial services.
This is a complex challenge without a quick fix
“We know too many women won’t be in senior roles in the industry – not because they don’t have the capacity, but because they support their workplace culture with them, not their work policies and their dysfunctional parenting systems at best.
“The gender pay gap won’t disappear on its own, and if the Prime Minister is to deliver on her promise and close it once and for all, we need consistent action and we need to be quick.”
The lender responds
lenders say they are working to address the gender pay and bonus gap.
A Lloyds Banking Group spokesman said the company prefers to use average numbers when comparing its gender pay gap because it shows a fall.
They said: “Our [mean] The gender pay gap has dropped to 25.9% this year, reflecting the increase in senior women who prioritize attracting and developing talented women. Despite the progress, we recognize that there is still a lot to do.
We must also focus on how to bring new and diverse talent into the industry as this will help address imbalances
“We strongly believe that companies with gender diversity management teams perform better, and we remain focused on closing the gender gap and creating an environment throughout the organization where women can thrive and achieve their career ambitions.”
A national spokesperson said: “In a similar comparison, our gender pay gap decreased by 2.8 percentage points between 2023 and 2024, while our average gender pay gap decreased by 0.7. However, due to the £500 residency salary paid in 2023, there are 2024 figures that tend to be the average pay in 2023, which makes women pay more than women pay.
“We are glad that our gender gap has made progress, but know there is more to do. It’s a complex challenge, no quick solutions, which is why we continue to work hard to improve inclusion and diversity.”
A spokesperson for Virgin Money said: “We want to create a bank that is more representative of the communities we serve and we are working to attract and retain talent that can achieve this. We are proud of the progress we have made at all levels of the organization.”
We need to see employers publish binding action plans to show how they will close the salary gap
All other top 10 lenders sought comments.
Agents slid across the network
Since 2017, any UK company with more than 250 employees has required that each year publish details of its pay gap by gender. So all the big lenders do this.
However, in mortgage brokers, it is difficult to solve the size of any pay gap, as most people have less than 250 employees and don’t have to post this information.
For both brokers, it seems that the gender pay gap is much smaller than that of lenders.
The mortgage intermediary provides a clear opportunity to postpone it. Flexible work, self-employed and entrepreneur models have been established
Only two mortgage brokers are large enough to disclose these figures: London and National Mortgage (L&C) and Mortgage Advisory Bureau (MAB).
The salary gap for MAB in 2024/25 was 18%, down from 19% in the previous year, while L&C had a salary gap of 13.7% in 2024/25 and a salary gap of 13.7% in 2023/24, which is much lower than the large lenders.
However, the bonus gap between the two brokers is also larger than the standards in the UK mortgage market.
The gender bonus gap for L&C was 75.9% in 2024/25, although this is 5.3% lower than 2023/24. The MAB’s bonus gap in 2024/25 was 40%, down from 42% in the previous year.
Caroline Hill, MAB chief, said: “At MAB, we believe that a diverse, balanced workforce will bring better results for everyone.
One of the problems affecting salary gap figures is that women are often underrepresented in senior positions
“We are committed to building an inclusive environment where all individuals feel valuable, support and able to thrive, and our commitment to closing the gender pay gap forms a key part of this.
“We will continue to explore how to better understand the gender pay gap and identify opportunities to support long-term, positive change.”
On the journey
David Hollingworth, deputy director of communications for L&C Mortgage Ceremony, said: “We know that like many people, we are still on the journey of closing the gender pay gap. We will need to continue working to improve, but are determined to make L&C a career that all colleagues think they can build long-term and fulfilling.
“The financial services sector has been working to attract more women. We still believe that the differences usually stem from the distribution of gender across different roles. More men play an important role in creating imbalances than administration, especially in bonus payments.
We want to create a bank that represents the community we serve more
“Nevertheless, we have taken steps to improve our policies and processes to address this.”
Hollingworth said this is L&C’s policy on maternal and adoption, menopause support, career development and mixed work.
Career Disadvantages
The Association of Mortgage Agency (AMI) says the mortgage gender pay gap is a “structural issue” that is often not just unequal salary, but also underrepresented about women in senior and highly paid positions.
Sabrina Grassler, senior policy consultant at AMI, said many women face career shortcomings after having children, which often provides them with useful opportunities.
Glassler said that due to menopause, one in 10 women also left the workplace, and another 22% were considering withdrawal, reducing the number of senior women in the industry.
Workplace culture solidifies those who oppose women… Parenting system is dysfunctional at best
She added: “Despite these realities, the mortgage intermediate sector provides a clear opportunity to oppose this model. This is an area of the market where flexible work, own employment and entrepreneur models have been fully established and women have the opportunity to lead their own companies, develop their own client base and adhere to other life commitments.
“Clamping the gender pay gap is not just a title statistic; it is about ensuring more women have the opportunity to lead and stay in the industry for a long time. We must also focus on bringing new and diverse talent into the field, as this will help address the imbalance.”
Equal transparency
Equality experts at the Fawcett Association say smaller companies now have to declare any gender pay gaps — including mortgage brokers.
“The report on the gender pay gap was presented eight years ago, and we all hope employers can see their salary gap and take action to shut it down. That’s not fast enough, now ask them.
“We need to see employers release binding action plans that show how they will close the salary gap, and we need to see reports to employers with less than 250 employees.”
We firmly believe that companies with senior management teams with gender diversity perform better
The issue of bonus inequality in the gender-based compensation and mortgage market is a serious problem – for some companies, this problem is getting worse than better. Lenders’ efforts to reduce these gaps will be praised, but the industry still has a long way to go.
Brokers are partly due to their entrepreneurial, homemade nature, that seems to be better than lenders’ locations.
But the unsettling fact is that they must also admit that serious changes need to be made to make the market fair to women.
