Commissions
Discretionary and non-discretionary commissions
On 11 January 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) announced a review of historical discretionary commission arrangements (DCAs) in the motor finance industry and paused the requirement for lenders to respond to related complaints.
This pause was extended on 19 December 2024 to also include complaints involving non-discretionary commission arrangements (non-DCAs).
The FCA has further extended the pause and given lenders until after 31 May 2026 before they start responding to certain complaints involving motor commission.
You will then have up to 15 months from the date of our final response letter or until 29 July 2026 (whichever is the later) to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The timelines will be confirmed in our final response to you.
The FCA has consulted on the potential compensation (redress) scheme. We’ll update this page once the FCA has published the outcome of the consultation.
For the latest information from the FCA, please click here.
What happens following the Supreme Court Judgment if I have already made a commission related complaint?
If you already have registered a complaint with us, no further action is required by you. We will provide further updates once we have completed our review and received guidance from the FCA. For the latest information regarding the FCA consultation, please click here.
I have signed up to a CMC (Claims Management Company) regarding my commission complaint. How do I withdraw and register a complaint directly with you?
You should check your contract with the CMC to see what it says about termination and your right to withdraw from the agreement. We will continue to correspond with the CMC until we receive confirmation from them that you have terminated your agreement. Once we receive this, we will update our records and contact you directly.
Where can I log a commission complaint?
You can register a commission complaint using the link below.
Please provide vehicle registration, finance agreement number and any previous postcode /surname at the time of your agreement.
Which customers could this apply to?
If you entered into a regulated motor finance agreement on or after 6 April 2007 where commission was paid, you’re likely to be eligible to make a complaint. This will include Select, Hire Purchase, Lease Purchase and Contract Hire agreements.
This applies for any type of commission, e.g. a discretionary or a non-discretionary one.
What is a discretionary commission?
Typically, the amount of commission earned by a dealer or broker was determined by the interest rate that the agreement had been contracted at – the lower the interest rate, the lower the commission the dealer or broker received, and vice versa. This was known as a discretionary commission arrangement. Since January 2021, this commission model is no longer allowed.
What is a non-discretionary commission?
This is usually referred to as a fixed commission. This means a fixed amount is paid by us and is calculated based on the vehicle you buy or as a percentage of the amount you borrow. The dealer or broker doesn’t have any discretion to vary the interest rate or APR you pay under your finance agreement.
How do I find out if my agreement was subject to a discretionary or other type of commission?
Please complete our discretionary commission enquiry form by clicking on the link below. You’ll need vehicle registration, finance agreement number and any previous postcode / surname at the time of your agreement.
What should I expect if you've already confirmed the commission model that applied to my agreement?
If we’ve sent you a confirmation of your commission model type, we’ll automatically log a commission complaint on your behalf and send you a letter of acknowledgement. As a result of the FCA broadening its review, we’ll do this even if we previously advised that your agreement was out of scope (due to commission type or your product type, e.g. Contract Hire or Finance Lease).
No further action is required from you. We’ll investigate your complaint but won’t be able to send a final response until after the FCA commission complaints pause, i.e. after 31 May 2026.
When can I expect to hear from you?
A commission enquiry can take us a while to respond to if we can’t match your information to our records but we will come back to you and ask for additional information.
We’ll acknowledge receipt of your complaint within 8 weeks. After the FCA has issued its new rules, we'll start to respond to complaints after 31 May 2026.
For the latest information from the FCA, please click here.
Where can I find further information from the Financial Conduct Authority?
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