The former financial regulator has insisted he did act in the role as he stopped the use of marketing golf balls.

Patrick Neary has been appearing before the Banking Inquiry, where he blamed the system for not keeping a close enough eye on the banks.

He apologised for the failures of the system and admitted the regulator did have the powers to stop excessive property lending but did not use them.

And Mr Neary told Senator Susan O'Keefe that he halted the use of golf balls as a promotion product.

Earlier, the former financial regulator said he was "deeply sorry" that banks were not properly supervised in the run-up to the financial crisis.

"I would like to say that, with hindsight, the supervisory measures taken by the authority - which I will be outlining in this statement - were not sufficient to meet the challenges posed by the crisis and the recession that emerged" he said.

"I'm deeply sorry about that" he added.

However, Mr Neary has admitted he did have the powers to limit the amount banks were lending to the property sector.

He told the Banking Inquiry that he ultimately had to depend on the details banks were giving to him, with no powers of inquiry.

But under questioning from Fianna Fail's Michael McGrath, he admitted he could have done more to intervene in the sector.

Mr Neary was the prudential director at the Financial Regulator until 2005, when he was appointed CEO.

It was under his watch that the massive lending at the major banks reached its peak, eventually culminating in the blanket guarantee of September 2008.

Such was the damage to the Financial Regulator's reputation that Mr Neary retired within days of Anglo being nationalised in 2009.