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.
