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Amanda Glover, media relations manager for Cheltenham and Gloucester, said differential pricing in the intermediary and branch channels has been a feature of the mortgage market for many years but, as a result of the market conditions, the differential has shifted across the industry.

Elizabeth Holloway, media relations manager of retail banking for Barclays, said: "We do not have any exclusive deals at the moment. We did have a few back a couple of years ago and we had one back in the first-quarter of this year but we have had nothing since.

"Basically we do not need them to meet our commercial targets at the moment. We are doing quite well without them."

HBoS, the UK's largest mortgage provider, said it could not disclose the number of exclusive products that are available, however it did say it would be fair to say there had been a reduction.

David Murphy, head of national accounts for BM Solutions, said: "We have trimmed back the number of exclusive products available in the last 12 months. This is in response to ongoing market and competitor changes.

"It is important that, across all of our brands, we continue to write a proportionate amount of new business. Clearly, we continually review all products, through all distribution channels, and amend the ranges as and when necessary."

The Royal Bank of Scotland said they did offer some exclusives earlier this summer and although they were not running any as Mortgage Adviser went to press, they were not shying away from doing so in the future.

Steve Carruthers, acting head of corporate accounts for RBS, said: "Exclusive products have to be right for both our business partners and their clients."

Adrian Whittaker, key accounts director at Abbey for Intermediaries said: "Exclusives are important to intermediaries as in many cases they offer a competitive advantage.

"However in the current market exclusives are increasingly difficult to price as swap rates have been extremely volatile and Libor remains high.

"Lenders also have to give special consideration to business volumes in the current market and as such the number of exclusives available has dwindled."

Ian Andrew, head of sales at Nationwide for Intermediaries, said: "Nationwide for Intermediaries did not offer any exclusive products before the credit crunch and we have no plans to launch any at the moment.

"We believe our policy of offering every adviser access to all our intermediary products is the fairest way of operating and ensures no adviser is disadvantaged during these difficult times."