According to Stephen Smith, director of housing and current affairs at Legal & General:

“There should be another big lender before the end of the year, but in between that, there will be a couple of returnees and also a couple of smaller new lenders”.

Legal & General Group said its expectation is that total gross lending for the year should finish slightly north of £200bn despite the slowdown brought by the Mortgage Market Review.

Smith said the bulk of the slowdown is being seen and absorbed through bank branch channels.