Moray McDonald, category director, home and lifestyle at RBS, told the CML conference that the continuing size of the broker market was testament to the strength of advice brokers offer consumers when borrowers could go direct to lenders.

He said: “What astonishes me is how big and healthy the broker market is, given that big banks are doing badly. We could ask why customers are going to brokers when we’ve got the products.

“However, it is good to ask what brokers are doing right. They are simplifying a complicated picture and it is a lesson to us that brokers are doing so well.”

In addition, McDonald said that he intended to focus on improving RBS’ approach to new build and buy-to-let lending.

McDonald said: “It is natural that new build and first-time buyers are seen as the leverage points in the market. I think as a lender that we are doing quite well on first-time buyers.

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“But one of the things on my to-do list is to look at our policy on new build, as there is a lot of variation across the market. We can look at better segmenting our new-build policy.

“At the moment, I would give us five out of ten on new-build lending and buy to let is a sector we could also support better.”