It is also entirely voluntary for lenders to register the vehicles they own with the asset registration agencies.
However, with the average value of a new vehicle standing at over £10,000, it is in the lenders' best interests to keep an accurate and up-to-date record of their vehicles and the customers who are using them.
The consequences of failing to register financial interests can be serious, such as a finance company ultimately losing ownership of its expensive asset. More generally a failure to record a new interest or delete an expired one can result in customer complaints, reputational damage and costly legal proceedings.
The FLA has developed some non-binding best practice on asset registration which provides helpful information to lenders and agencies on how to best go about recording financial interests and managing the supply of that data.
For lenders who are members of the FLA it is now a requirement under the Lending Code for them to register their vehicle financial interests with each of the primary asset registration agencies (currently cap hpi, CDL, Experian and AutoTrader).
