Navigating the Consumer Duty: What it Means for Your Finance Process

The introduction of the FCA’s Consumer Duty in July 2023 has reshaped the way automotive retailers approach their finance processes. Designed to ensure that customers are at the heart of every transaction, the new requirements demand not just compliance but a proactive commitment to transparency, fairness, and accountability. For some dealers, this can feel like a lot of work but with the right tools in place, it doesn’t have to be.

At DealTrak, we’ve developed our Compliance Module to provide dealers with a robust yet flexible framework that helps them not just meet, but embed the principles of the Consumer Duty into every finance transaction.

Building Your Own Compliance Process

Every dealership is unique. From the brands you sell to the way your teams interact with customers, no two sales processes are identical. That’s why the DealTrak Compliance Module is designed to put the dealer in control. Rather than prescribing a rigid checklist, the module gives you the freedom to build, refine, and implement a compliance process that works for your business.

Think of it as a framework that sits behind your sales journey. You decide what the key checks and balances are, and DealTrak ensures those steps are consistently applied across every transaction. This flexibility means you can tailor your compliance process to reflect your culture, your customer promise, and the specific regulatory demands of the moment.

Refining the Controls

A good compliance process isn’t static. It should evolve as your business and the regulatory landscape change. With DealTrak, you can refine and update your controls over time. This ensures that your compliance journey isn’t just a one-off project but an ongoing discipline.

For example, you might introduce extra checks around affordability assessments, or build in prompts that reinforce transparency in how finance products are explained. The framework makes these refinements easy to implement, ensuring your sales teams always follow the latest standards.

Stress-Free Transactions

With the DealTrak Compliance Module underpinning every transaction, dealers can operate with peace of mind knowing that the regulatory side of things is taken care of.

This means sales teams can focus on what they do best: delivering a great customer experience and ultimately selling cars. With controls embedded into the system, there’s less room for error or confusion.

A Compliance Framework That Works for You

Following recent attention from the regulator and the notorious Supreme Court judgment, customers expect higher levels of transparency than ever before. Navigating the Consumer Duty successfully requires a compliance culture that runs through your entire sales process.

With our framework, we empower you to build your own process, refine it as you go, and underpin every transaction with the rigour regulators demand. The result is a streamlined, stress-free approach to finance that keeps both your dealership and your customers protected.

Read a real-world example of how dealers use the Compliance Module in a first-hand testimonial.

Take me to the Testimonial