City regulator warns finance firms over 'lost' mis-sold car loans data

The City regulator has warned it will challenge lenders claiming to have lost customer records about mis-sold car loans to ensure they get their fair share of a potential £18bn compensation pot.

- Kalyeena Makortoff

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is considering whether to open its redress scheme to contracts dating back to 2007, but some lenders have complained that they do not have records stretching back that far.

Speaking to MPs on the Treasury committee, the FCA chief executive, Nikhil Rathi, said this would not be accepted as a blanket excuse. "Where a firm says to us that they don't have the data, we're not just going to take that at face value. We will look at that very forensically," he said.