The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has written to motor finance lenders setting out steps to reduce consumer harm where more than one professional representative is appointed for the same motor finance commission complaint, creating uncertainty over who is acting for the customer. The letter reinforces the FCA’s October 2025 messaging to lenders and claims management companies, and accompanies a joint FCA and Solicitors Regulation Authority statement on expectations of professional representatives. The FCA says it has seen a significant volume of cases where lenders did not promptly inform professional representatives or customers after identifying multiple representation, leading to delays and increased risk of unnecessary termination fees. Lenders are expected to identify unclear multiple-representation cases, contact all involved representatives to establish a sole representative with the customer copied in, provide sufficient information for parties to determine who is acting, explain the implications of appointing more than one representative, and close duplicate complaints once representation is confirmed. Where a sole representative cannot be identified after reasonable efforts, firms should ask the customer what they want to do, while limiting information sharing to what is necessary and complying with legal and data protection requirements. The FCA links the issue to the paused handling of motor finance commission complaints, which is due to end in May 2026, and to its proposed Motor Finance Consumer Redress Scheme, for which it expects to publish final rules by the end of March 2026. It says complaints outside any finalised scheme will need to progress quickly in line with DISP timelines once the pause ends, and it will monitor firm practices and may intervene where it sees poor practice or unnecessary delay.

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