FOS has around 20,000 open complaints on car finance commission. It has explained on its website that:
- it published its first representative decisions in January 2024;
- also in January, the FCA announced its review of the historical use of discretionary commission arrangements and paused the requirement for firms to issue final responses in relation to some relevant cases;
- in March, three court cases relating to car finance commission were granted permission to go to the Court of Appeal, but the hearing has not yet taken place; and
- in April, Clydesdale Financial Services Limited started judicial review proceedings in relation to one FOS Decision. Again, those hearings have not yet taken place.
The FCA has committed to provide further information on the next steps by late September, but there is no date for the expected court decisions. This all means that the FOS will not be able to issue final decisions on affected cases for some time. But it will continue to accept and investigate complaints so that it can be sure it has all relevant information, can identify whether the case is likely to be affected by the court proceedings and can issue assessments and decisions where the case is not affected by the legal action.