Company: BCDRF
Filing Date: 2025-10-29
Form Type: 6-K
Source: 0000891478-25-000138
Chunk: 30

Company: Banco Santander, S.A.
Filing Date: 2025-10-29
Form: 6-K
Chunk 30
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 Consumer (UK) plc (SCUK) has received several of county court claims and complaints in respect of its historical use of discretionary commission arrangements (DCAs) prior to the 2021 rule changes. In January 2024 the FCA commenced a review of the use of DCAs between lenders and credit brokers (the FCA Review). Pending the conclusion of its review, the FCA first paused the handling of DCA complaints and then extended this to motor finance commission related complaints which are now paused until 4 December 2025. A claim was issued against SCUK, Santander UK plc and others in the Competition Appeal Tribunal , alleging that SCUK’s historical DCAs in respect of used car financing operated in breach of the Competition Act 1998. This is currently paused until the end of October 2025 connected to the outcome of the FCA Review.

In light of the Court of Appeal's judgment of October 2024, rendered in the judicial proceedings involving other financial entities, the Santander UK Group Holdings (Santander UK) recognised a provision of GBP 283.4 million (EUR 324.7 million) in relation to historical motor finance commission payments. This included estimates operational and legal costs and potential awards based on various using a range of assumptions. This judgment was appealed before the Supreme Court.

On 1 August 2025, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment that motor dealers acting as credit brokers do not owe fiduciary or disinterested duties to their customers and, as a consequence, commission payments by lenders to motor dealers would not be unlawful on that basis. In addition, the Supreme Court held that an unfair relationship under s.140A of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 had arisen in the Johnson case on its facts and awarded the amount of the commission paid by the lender plus interest at a commercial rate as the remedy. It also confirmed that the test for unfairness was highly fact sensitive and it outlined a series of non-exhaustive factors to consider in assessing unfair relationships in this context (indicating that no or partial disclosure was not necessarily enough on its own to constitute an unfair relationship).

Following the Supreme Court’s judgment, on 3 August, the FCA announced that it aimed to publish a consultation on an industry wide redress scheme in early October, and that this consultation would be open for six weeks. In early September 2025, the appeal to the Court of Appeal of the High Court’s judicial review of a final decision by the Financial Ombudsman Service against another