He replaces Colin Walsh who stood down last month due to his forthcoming departure from Lloyds Banking Group.
He is supported by two new deputy chairmen Nigel Terrington, chief executive of the Paragon Group, and Stephen Noakes, commercial director for mortgages at Lloyds Banking Group.
Martijn Van der Heijden worked at HBOS and Santander before joining HSBC in 2007 and has both an MSc in Business Economics from Rotterdam University and an MBA from Cambridge University.
He has been deputy chairman of the CML since January 2009.
Van der Heijden said: "I thank Colin for his dedication to the industry. I share his aim of trying to harness the expertise of the different kinds of lenders in the UK to help to bring about an industry united in its goal to improve the mortgage market.
"Regulation - domestic and from Europe - will dominate the CML's actions for the rest of the year and well into 2012.
“It is of the utmost importance that the UK gets the regulation right, as this will play a huge part in ensuring our industry helps the UK economic recovery and underpins a sustainable housing finance market."
Robert Sinclair, director of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, welcomed the appointment.
"Martijn Van der Heijden is an experienced and very well respected senior industry figure who has driven a successful expansion of HSBC's mortgage commitment," he said.
"AMI remains confident that the new team at the CML is well placed to lead the industry to deliver more sustainable home ownership, ensuring that consumers are able to access a full suite of products through as wide a range of providers as possible.
"We are sure that CML policy will continue to reflect the fact that most mortgages are sourced via intermediaries."
David Hollingworth, communications director of London & Country, said: "HSBC has clearly been a much bigger player in the mortgage market in recent years and so it is perhaps not surprising to see the appointment of Martijn Van der Heijden, a prominent figure at a prominent lender.
"It would be easy for intermediaries to feel threatened by the appointment of a direct only lender’s representative to the Chair of the Council of Mortgage Lenders but that is to forget the central role of the CML.
"The CML is there to represent a wide range of different lenders, the majority of which continue to place significant value on intermediated distribution. The new director general Paul Smee will certainly understand that and I’m sure that he and the new chairman will be working hard to further the interests of the lending industry in general, to ensure an improved market that will ultimately be better for everyone."
Andrew Montlake director at Coreco, added: “Martijn has experience, seems like a nice guy and I’m sure he’ll make a good chairman. It will interesting from a broker’s point of view to see how the CML’s stance develops given that Martijn comes from a direct-only lender while director general Paul Smee comes from a strong intermediary background.”
The changes to elected officers follow the arrival of director general Paul Smee on 1 August who replaced outgoing CML director general Michael Coogan.
