Martin Lewis posted on social media site X: “Motor finance misselling update: @TheFCA just announced while it'll announce its ruling in May 2025 firms will have until December 2025 to deal with complaints.”

Martin Lewis has previously stressed road users could be owed “thousands” in payouts if they were affected by mis-sold discretionary commission arrangements (DCA).

Those who purchased a model on finance between 2007 and 2021 could be affected with Martin urging motorists to contact firms if they feel they may have been impacted.

In a major revelation, the FCA confirmed the delay would allow time “to design, consult on and introduce an alternative way of dealing with DCA complaints”.

They admitted this could be in the form of a “consumer redress scheme” which they accepted was “more likely” than when the review began.

The FCA stressed they were “assessing thousands of records spanning 14 years” as part of their study. 

A new statement from the FCA reads: “We now intend to set out next steps in our review into the past use of DCAs in May 2025. 

“By then, we expect to have analysed the data we have collected from firms and assessed the outcome of the Barclays judicial review of the Financial Ombudsman’s decision to uphold a DCA complaint.

“Our next steps could involve consulting on a redress scheme. This is why we intend to take the precautionary step of pausing complaint handling until December 4, 2025, as it may take until then to confirm how firms would implement it. 

“Or it could involve asking firms to start dealing with complaints again as usual, in which case we would consult on ending the pause earlier. If we can set out our proposed next steps sooner, we will.”