Volkswagen Financial Services, the financial services arm of Volkswagen Group, has been investigated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for making inappropriate profits from its Discretionary Commission Arrangement. The Discretionary Commission Arrangement allowed car dealerships to set the interest rates and added charges on car finance deals, and Volkswagen Financial Services then made a profit on the difference between their cost of borrowing and the customer’s rate. The FCA found that this created a conflict of interest which led to unfair outcomes for customers ^[1].

Customers who have made a discretionary commission complaint to Volkswagen Financial Services and received a final response between July 12, 2023, and January 10, 2024, can now refer their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service for up to 15 months, instead of the previous 6 months ^[2].