Michael Coogan, director of the CML, said despite the £180 million spent by the industry on preparing for regulation there was as yet no evidence of any discernible benefit for the consumer.
"The fact that each mortgage interview is now half an hour longer may well put consumers off shopping around. But they may turn to brokers to do that shopping around for them," he said.
He said it was still too early to tell if there had been a shift in mortgage origination from direct-to-lender to intermediary as a result of regulation.
"From a lender perspective it has all gone as well as can have been expected. We have not seen any lenders fail, though sadly this has not been the case for some networks and intermediary firms," Coogan added.
Speaking at the Mortgages Business Expo in Manchester this week Andy Watson, head of supervision, high street firms division at the FSA, said overall large intermediary firms had taken well to regulation. However, he said some firms’ understanding of the rules were “patchy” and that record keeping was one area where many smaller firms were lacking.
He warned that the FSA would be revisiting firms who had been perceived as high-risk when applying for authorisation. He said some of these firms had been granted authorisation on the basis of assurances given and that these undertakings would now be checked.
Looking to the future Watson said the regulator would be focusing its attention on disclosure documents and what it considered to be high-risk market sectors such as lifetime mortgages and non-conforming.
