The Car Finance Redress Timeline

The car finance redress timeline

This is the dated, sourced chronology of the motor finance commission scandal and the FCA redress scheme. It exists so you can cite one authoritative sequence — whether you're checking your own claim, catching up on the news, or weighing a claims firm's pitch.

Every entry below carries a date and a source: the FCA for regulatory action and the scheme, and the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom for the 2025 ruling. Where a date is provisional — the tail of payouts into 2027, say, or any shift from the legal challenge — we say so plainly.

For the explanation behind each milestone rather than the bare dates, read the scandal explained and the FCA scheme. For the live, developing picture, read claims news.

Phase 1: The commission era (6 April 2007 – 28 January 2021)

For nearly fourteen years, brokers arranging car finance could earn more commission by setting a higher interest rate — the discretionary commission arrangement (DCA) at the centre of this scandal. The affected window opens on 6 April 2007.

Under a DCA, the lender set a target rate and a higher ceiling. The broker could push your rate up towards that ceiling, and the difference was paid to them as commission. So the person finding you finance was rewarded for charging you more, usually without telling you. The FCA later concluded this conflict could make the lending relationship unfair.

The earliest agreement date the scheme covers is 6 April 2007. If your finance started on or after that date and was arranged through a commission-paid dealer or broker, that's the first milestone to check.

Phase 2: The ban and the build-up (28 January 2021 – 2024)

On 28 January 2021 the FCA banned new discretionary commission arrangements. No DCA should appear on a deal dated after that, though the wider scheme window runs to 1 November 2024 to catch high-commission arrangements and contractual ties that carried on.

The ban stopped the clearest conflict, but it didn't settle deals already written under a DCA. Through 2024 the FCA paused the usual complaint time limits for motor finance commission cases while it worked out a scheme-wide approach — heading off a flood of individual complaints at the Financial Ombudsman before the rules were settled. That pause ended when the scheme was finalised on 30 March 2026.

The latest agreement start date in scope is 1 November 2024. A post-ban deal can still qualify if an undisclosed high-commission arrangement (commission at least 39% of the total cost of credit and at least 10% of the loan) or a contractual tie applied.

Phase 3: The Supreme Court ruling (1 August 2025)

On 1 August 2025 the UK Supreme Court ruled that undisclosed motor finance commission can make the lending relationship unfair under section 140A of the Consumer Credit Act 1974. It didn't order automatic payouts — it set the legal framework the FCA then turned into a scheme.

The lead case turned on a simple fact: the borrower wasn't told about the commission paid to the broker. The court held that this kind of secrecy — a conflict of interest kept hidden — can on its own meet the "unfair relationship" test in section 140A. Section 140B sets out the remedies, including reducing what's owed or ordering repayment.

The judgment is why an industry-wide scheme became lawful, rather than leaving each borrower to fight it out in court. Read it in full on the Supreme Court ruling page. Source: Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (supremecourt.uk).

Phase 4: The FCA redress scheme (30 March 2026)

On 30 March 2026 the FCA finalised the motor finance consumer redress scheme in Policy Statement PS26/3, updated on 8 May 2026. It covers agreements from 6 April 2007 to 1 November 2024 and is expected to deliver about ~£7.5bn of redress across roughly 12.1 million agreements.

The scheme applies the same three-part test across every firm: an undisclosed DCA, an undisclosed high-commission arrangement, or an undisclosed contractual tie. 0% and minimal-commission deals are excluded. Redress is the extra interest you paid because of the commission, plus interest on top, with a cap on roughly one in three qualifying agreements.

On 1 May 2026 the FCA confirmed the scheme had been legally challenged, and said it would defend it "robustly as lawful." That challenge is about the lawfulness of the scheme's design, not whether redress is owed. Source: FCA, Policy Statement PS26/3.

Phase 5: The scheme opens and payouts (2026 – 2027)

The scheme opens in two waves: 30 June 2026 for agreements from 1 April 2014 onward, and 31 August 2026 for earlier agreements. Millions of payments are expected in 2026, with most of the rest made by the end of 2027.

The two waves exist because the legal framework changed on 1 April 2014. Newer agreements sit under a regime the FCA considers straightforward to assess; earlier ones need extra checking, which is why that wave opens about two months later. The consumer deadline — the last date to complain if no firm contacts you — is 31 August 2027.

Treat the tail of payouts as provisional. The legal challenge from 1 May 2026 could affect exactly when bulk payments begin; the FCA is defending the scheme, and free DIY complaints continue regardless. Any figure you see is an estimate, not a promise — nobody is guaranteed a payout, and the amount depends on your own agreement.

The full dated timeline

Every milestone, in order, dated and sourced. This is the table to cite.

Read the timeline in order and you can see why nothing has been cancelled. The 2025 ruling set the legal test, the March 2026 scheme turned it into a process, the June 2026 opening turned that process into payments, and the May 2026 challenge is about the scheme's design — not about erasing the underlying right.