Research by Hargreaves Lansdown found that 18 consultation papers published by the FSA between October 2010 and October 2011 introduce potentially significant cost burdens for the industry.

One-off implementation costs would cost the financial services sector between £253-323m and a further £1.1-1.4bn will be spent every year after in compliance costs.

The figures are based on the FSA’s own regulatory cost benefit analyses and the measures cover areas such as capital requirements, data collection and handling consumer complaints.

The 18 papers included in the review are CP10/22, CP10/25, CP10/26, CP10/27, CP10/28, CP10/29, CP11/02, CP11/03, CP11/04, CP11/05, CP11/08, CP11/09, CP11/10, CP11/11, CP11/12, CP11/13, CP11/16, CP11/17 and CP11/19.

Tom McPhail, head of pensions research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “We recognise that the regulator has a difficult line to walk between consumer protection and giving the financial services industry, which plays such a huge role in the UK economy, room to flourish.

“But we were surprised at the range of one-off and ongoing costs facing the industry as a whole. We also recognise that a proportion of the UK regulatory costs are driven by Europe.”