Often yes — but what you are allowed to do turns on who your customer is. Finance to an incorporated business for business use sits outside the FCA consumer credit regime, which covers the bulk of equipment, plant, machinery and commercial vehicle finance. Many dealers therefore work with a broker without holding any permission of their own.
Sole traders and partnerships are individuals in law, so their agreements can fall inside the regulated regime depending on the amount and the purpose. Broadly, business-purpose lending above £25,000 to an individual sits outside it and smaller amounts may not — but check the current position rather than relying on a remembered figure. Finance to a private individual for personal use is squarely regulated.
There is also a spectrum between mentioning that finance exists and actually arranging it, and where you sit on it depends on how much you do. Handing over a phone number is one end. Discussing products, helping fill in an application, presenting monthly figures or steering a customer towards a particular funder is well along the other. Being paid commission makes it much harder to argue you merely passed on a name.
The thing dealers most often get wrong, usually by accident, is advertising. Putting “finance available” or “finance from £X per month” on your website, in a brochure or on a forecourt board is a financial promotion. It must be fair, clear and not misleading, and it generally needs approving by an authorised firm.
Where you want to introduce regulated business and be paid for it, the Introducer Appointed Representative route exists. An IAR is appointed by an FCA-authorised principal, does not hold its own authorisation, and operates under the principal’s, with the principal taking regulatory responsibility. In our case the principal is Rural Finance Limited. We can introduce you into that conversation and support an application, but the appointment and the ongoing oversight sit with the principal.
This is general information, not legal or compliance advice, and your own position depends on your customer mix. Take your own advice on what you need.