Motor finance commissions

What’s going on in the industry, and how to find out if you had a discretionary commission arrangement.

Decision on motor finance commission cases from the Court of Appeal

At ALD Automotive we work closely with partners to offer mobility solutions to our customers, including vehicle finance. On 25 November 2024, the Court of Appeal ruled that commission from a lender providing motor finance should be disclosed, and the customer should give informed consent to the payment.

Since the judgment was issued, ALD Automotive has been working closely with the FCA and other industry bodies to monitor the impact and we’ve already made some changes to how we onboard our customers.

The FCA's review on motor industry finance commission

In January 2024 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) shared that they would review motor finance discretionary commission arrangements (DCA's), and how these have been handled across the motor finance industry today and in the past.

On 24 September 2024, the FCA released an update to the ongoing review and issued further guidelines. The pause was then widened on 20 December 2024, so the FCA have now given firms until after the 4 December 2025 before they have to start responding to any type of car finance commission complaint (including DCAs).

  • The FCA intends to share their findings and next steps in May 2025. If your agreement did involve a DCA, you won’t automatically be entitled to compensation.
  • The complaint handling pause is still in place and the deadline for us to respond to customer complaints has been extended to after 4 December 2025. As a result, we will not be in a position to issue final responses to commission complaints until after this date.
  • You will have more time to refer complaints to the Financial Ombudsman when a final response is issued. Instead of the usual six months, you have until 29 July 2026, or 15 months from the date of the final response letter, whichever is later. The timelines will be confirmed in the final response letter we send you. 


You can read more about the timelines on the FCA's website.

Submitting a motor finance commission information request or complaint

If you’re not sure whether your agreement included a DCA or wish to make a complaint relating to motor finance commission, please complete the email form with as many details as possible

For any complaints that do not relate to motor finance commissions, please visit our Complaints page.  

 

What happens once we have your information request or complaint?

Completing our online form is the most effective way to submit your request or complaint. This will enable us to create a case file and locate your agreement, then confirm whether a DCA or non-DCA commission  applies and if you are in scope for the FCA investigation. We’ll reply as soon as we can, but we are experiencing a high volume of requests, so thank you in advance for your patience. 

Once we have had further guidance from the FCA, we’ll then be able to investigate the specifics of your complaint and give you a formal response. The FCA have now given firms until after the 4 December 2025 before they have to start responding to any type of car finance commission complaint (including DCAs). The FCA plan to set out next steps for DCAs in May 2025. The FCA hopes to provide an update on motor finance non-DCA commission complaints at the same time. 

Motor commission finance complaints FAQs