Why this matters.
On 30 March 2026 the Financial Conduct Authority confirmed, in Policy Statement PS26/3, an industry-wide redress scheme for motor finance agreements taken out between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024 where commission was payable by the lender to the dealer or broker. The scheme responds to widespread use of discretionary commission arrangements (DCAs), where dealers and brokers could adjust a customer’s interest rate to increase their own commission, and other cases where high or undisclosed commission created a conflict of interest. Firms are expected to pay out roughly £7.5 billion in total, with an average redress payment of around £829 per eligible agreement plus interest, calculated using the FCA’s “hybrid remedy” methodology. Around 12.1 million agreements are expected to fall within scope.
Crucially, the scheme is not complaint-led alone: lenders must proactively identify eligible customers — including those who never complained — and contact them once the implementation period ends. Firms have three months after implementation ends to tell complainants whether they’re owed compensation, and six months to reach eligible customers who haven’t complained. The FCA has set up a dedicated supervisory team to monitor compliance and has said it will use its enforcement powers against firms that fail to meet their obligations. Dealers, credit brokers and lenders involved in arranging motor finance in this period — even if no longer trading in that form — should establish now whether they hold in-scope agreements, review their historic commission arrangements, and put a compliant redress process in place before the final consumer complaint deadline of 31 August 2027.