Regulator
What is the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)?
What it is
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the UK’s statutory regulator for the financial services industry, set up under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. It is not a trade body and it is not a complaints service — it is a public regulator with legal powers, funded by the firms it oversees. Around 50,000 firms fall inside its remit, from high-street lenders and car-finance brokers to insurers and Claims Management Companies (CMCs).
Its statutory objectives are consumer protection, market integrity, and effective competition. In practice that means the FCA authorises firms before they can trade, sets the conduct rules they must follow, supervises how those rules are applied, and enforces breaches through fines, public censure, restrictions on permissions, or removal from the market altogether. Total Claim operates through its regulated entity, Chase Monro Claims Ltd, which is authorised and supervised by the FCA as a CMC.
If you want to check whether any firm — a lender, a broker, a CMC, or a financial adviser — is genuinely regulated, the FCA runs the Financial Services Register at register.fca.org.uk. You can search by firm name or by Firm Reference Number (FRN), and the entry will show what activities a firm is permitted to carry out and any restrictions on its permissions.
Why it matters for your claim
Motor finance commission complaints exist as a category because of the FCA. The FCA banned Discretionary Commission Arrangements (DCAs) on 28 January 2021, and its later review of the wider motor finance market is what led to the redress scheme now being developed — a scheme that remains under legal challenge and is still evolving, so the rules are not yet final. Every UK firm that touches your claim sits inside FCA rules: the lender that sold you the agreement, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) that hears unresolved complaints, and any CMC that helps you complain. Before you work with any firm, look it up on the Financial Services Register — Chase Monro Claims Ltd is FRN 831404.
Your free alternatives and how we charge
Checking whether you may have a car finance claim with Total Claim is free, with no obligation. You can also pursue a complaint direct to your lender or, if you're unhappy with their response, escalate it for free to the Financial Ombudsman Service.
If you choose to use Total Claim and we win compensation for you, our success fee is 18–36% (including VAT) of the redress amount, charged only on success. You have a 14-day cooling-off period after signing; cancelling after that may be charged on an hourly basis for work already done.