A spokesman for the FCA said it was unable to comment on specific cases but said: “We do have concerns about how complex offshore financing chains may be driving high-volume consumer claims, and we’re investigating this further as part of our market study.”
Courmacs received its funding for the motor finance mis-selling case in cash from Eram Capital, a company involved in arranging the Bitfinex Securities offering.
A spokesman for Eram said it arranged the financing alongside other investors. They suggested that these unnamed co-investors listed the loans on Bitfinex Securities.
Eram Capital added that it was not its explicit intention to raise capital through the issuance of tokens.
Bitfinex Securities, which is regulated by the Astana Financial Services Authority, Kazakhstan’s financial regulator, operates a secondary market for raising capital. Investors must be corporate or professional investors, or individual investors who can make a minimum purchase of $100,000.
Darren Smith, the managing director of Courmacs Legal, said: “Courmacs Legal raised litigation funding from Eram Capital Partners in September 2024. The source of these funds was fully verified under our anti-money-laundering and know-your-client checks and is compliant with all our regulatory obligations.
“Our regulator, the Solicitors Regulation Authority, knows about all our third-party funding arrangements and has never raised any concerns.”
The motor finance scandal centres on payments made by lenders to car salesmen based on the interest rate charged on car loans they helped to broker.
The FCA, which banned these agreements in 2021, argued that these fees were rarely disclosed to customers and provided an incentive for dealers to charge higher interest rates than necessary.
The watchdog laid out details of a compensation scheme last month, under which millions of drivers would receive, on average, £830 each. However, the FCA scheme is being challenged both by Consumer Voice and several car finance lenders.
The Solicitors Regulation Authority declined to comment.
