The partnership comes as UK car sales rebound after the Covid-19 pandemic, with used car sales particularly booming. This rebound is already being reflected in Volt and Bumper’s sales volume, as since dealerships began quickly adopting the integration in January 2024, more than £3 million in payments has been processed in the UK, with some customers using Volt to buy cars outright.
In 2021, the FCA banned incentives for brokers to increase the interest rate that a customer pays for their motor finance. But many customers have logged complaints claiming compensation for unfair commission arrangements struck prior to the ban. The Financial Ombudsman said it sees complaints about car finance commission on a range of car finance agreements and different commission models.
Adams joins MotoNovo from Lloyds Banking Group, where he worked for over 20 years, most recently as Head of Pricing and Performance for their Black Horse and Lex Autolease businesses, which encompassed motor finance, leasing, fleet finance and direct to consumer auto lending. Prior to this, he was finance director at Black Horse from 2014 to 2019 and, until then, held a number of management roles across the wider banking group.
The consumer used car finance market reported a fall in new business in November of 6% both by value and volume compared with the same month in 2022. In the eleven months to November 2023, new business volumes in this market were 6% lower than in the same period in 2022.
The FCA said it would use its powers under S166 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, to review historical arrangements and sales across several firms, to ensure fair practice. It said in a statement: "If we find there has been widespread misconduct and that consumers have lost out, we will identify how best to make sure people who are owed compensation receive an appropriate settlement in an orderly, consistent and efficient way."
Santander Consumer Finance will provide a choice of finance solutions covering Personal Contract Purchase (PCP), Personal Contract Hire (PCH), Conditional Sale (CS) and Business Contract Hire (BCH). Santander is already providing finance for customers buying Fisker’s debut model, the recently launched Ocean SUV.
Processes need to be sound and robust, with impartial audit trails available that evidence how businesses are doing everything that the regulations demand to ensure that consumers are treated with transparency and fairness.
Santander Consumer Finance’s partnership with BYD takes its total number of manufacturer partners to 17 and follows the recent signing of INEOS Automotive and Polestar.
The move, which could benefit thousands of motor retailers who use ATG’s NetDirector Auto-e platform, will include iVendi’s Consumer Duty-compliant tools such as full finance quoting, applications and proposals, form validation, lender product content, monthly payment calculations and finance eligibility checks.
Research reveals more than 50% of people looking to buy a car in the next 12 months plan to use car finance; this comes at a time when the number of vehicles bought using finance increased by more than 100,000 between 2021-2022 alone. However, when asked, 100% of respondents failed to correctly identify elements of a car finance agreement and 62% didn’t know what documents or personal information are required to apply.
