FCA to resume motor finance complaints handling from May 2026

The financial watchdog, the FCA, is ending its temporary pause on handling most motor finance commission complaints on 31 May 2026.

This gives the regulator time to finalise a compensation scheme and gives finance companies time to prepare for the massive number of expected claims.

Why were claims paused?

Well, in around January 2024, the FCA started investigating whether car finance companies were properly disclosing the commissions they paid to car dealers, aka brokers (spoiler: they weren’t).

Basically, car dealers were convincing customers to pay higher interest rates on their car finance deals, and in return were getting commission from car finance firms, and they weren’t telling their customers that was happening. Hmm. Ok.

Anyway, the FCA deemed this wasn’t right and customers started complaining – but the FCA was worried that a rush of complaints would lead to inconsistent and rushed outcomes while it tried to figure out the scale of the issue, and what should be done about it.

So, the FCA then paused the normal eight-week deadline for handling these complaints while it came up with a solution. It has now set a deadline to lift this pause.

This gives the FCA time to put a potential compensation scheme into place (the details aren’t finalised yet – should be in February/March), and it gives motor finance companies a deadline to prepare for handling an expected large volume of complaints.

What does this mean for motor finance customers?

From 31 May next year, companies must start issuing ‘final responses’ to complaints that fall outside of the FCA’s the new compensation scheme, if one is finalised.

If you have already complained about a motor finance deal: You don’t need to do anything right now. The FCA says your complaint will be addressed once the pause lifts or through the new scheme.

If you have not complained yet: The FCA says anyone who is worried that they weren’t told about a commission and thinks they paid too much for their motor finance should complain to their finance provider now.

Note: Complaints related to motor leasing are separate and are not part of this pause. Companies must continue to handle those types of complaints under normal rules.