GMB hosts halt show as Martin Lewis delivers urgent breaking news announcement

Good Morning Britain hosts Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid paused the show today for a breaking news announcement featuring financial expert Martin Lewis.

Appearing on the ITV programme, Martin revealed that the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has extended the time for handling motor finance commission complaints. This move could mean big news for millions of people who’ve financed cars.

Martin explained: “Anyone who’s ever taken out car finance could now be eligible for a payout.” He then took to X to share the big news, urging anyone who’s ever had car finance to consider filing a claim.

In his post, Martin wrote: "Minutes ago, the regulator, The FCA, announced it's consulting for two weeks (so quick, it's a likely done deal) on extending the time firms have to handle motor finance commission complaints.

"This is on the back of a Court of Appeal ruling a couple of weeks ago and the extension is to incorporate a potential Supreme Court decision. - The Key Bit: While not specified in its announcement, I've had it confirmed this applies to ALL car finance commission complaints, not just the Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCAs) complaints previously covered."

He added: "What this means: It signals that the FCA is paving the ground to in future broaden the scope of its car finance investigation, so not only at the 40% of past claims that had DCAs (where dealers could increase their commission by increasing interest) but all commissions including fixed commissions.

"This is on the back of the Court of Appeal ruled 'consumers need to know all material facts including the amount of commission' which they often weren't told even in fixed commission cases. It looks like (I need to dig) if the hold is extended, almost everyone who has had car finance deals may have a complaint (I need to examine timelines of what counts) and be potentially due money back (this includes those already rejected as they were told they 'didn't have a DCA') This potentially more than doubles the number of people involved, and would really start to look more like PPI scale of payouts (and a substantial threat to the car finance industry)."

Martin continued: "What should people do: The FCA will suggest people log their complaints sooner including fixed commission complaints, in order to avoid missing out due to a potential time bar. I will work with my MSE team to expand our MoneySavingExpert free complaints (that's already had 2.5m complaints through it) to help the new cohort of people who may be able to complain.

"What will the outcome be: I think this makes it more likely that DCA commission cases will get future payouts. For 'fixed' commissions, this isn’t about the FCA, it all strongly swings on if the Supreme Court upholds the Court of Appeal ruling (assuming it accepts the appeal to it, which the FCA has urged it to do, and to do at speed). That’s the key to if the FCA will broaden its scope."

Ending his lengthy post he said: "These are provisional first thoughts, bashed out at speed, obviously there's more work to do, but it is big."