Who we can help

Consumers can ask someone else to bring a complaint to us, such as:

• a family member
• a friend
• a carer or support worker
• Citizens Advice
• their local MP
• solicitors
• a claims management company (CMC)

We can help parents, guardians and others who are bringing a complaint on behalf of someone who is under 18 years old. We will need to see evidence of parental responsibility if you are complaining on behalf of someone who is under 18 years old.

We can also help you if you are bringing a complaint on behalf of someone who’s died or doesn’t have mental capacity. We'll need to be sure you're authorised by UK law to bring the complaint. We may ask for evidence that you have permission to act on the complainant's behalf.

We can point you in the right direction for help with your complaint if it is about a business that is based outside the UK and we're not able to consider the complaint.

We can help people with complaints about claims management companies (CMCs). 

We can usually look at complaints about CMCs that provide their services:

• from England, Scotland or Wales, or
• to consumers in England, Scotland or Wales

We have the power to sort out complaints in a fair and impartial way and put things right.

When you contact us, we’ll ask for more detailed information about your business so we can confirm whether we can help.

The rules set out who we can help according to the size of your business at the point of your complaint against the financial firm. The key criteria are:

• the size of your turnover
• what you have on your balance sheet
• the number of staff you employ

As long as the event you’re complaining about happened after 1 April 2019, we’ll consider you a small business if your annual turnover was less than £6.5 million and you either:

• had total assets on your balance sheet of less than £5 million or
• employed fewer than 50 people.

The 'two-year' rule recognises some businesses might exceed the thresholds temporarily during an exceptional year or in volatile markets. 

If a business exceeds a threshold during the year in question, we will consider the size of the business over the two previous years as well. Looking at all three years, we will only consider the business too big if it has exceeded the threshold for two consecutive years. 

Please note, this rule does not apply where a business exceeds the threshold due to a merger or acquisition, as this is not generally temporary.

To work out the relevant size of your business, we will work out if you are:

• an 'autonomous enterprise'
• a 'linked enterprise'
• a 'partner enterprise'

If your business is connected to other businesses, we'll need to consider the size of your linked or partner enterprises when assessing the size of your business to decide whether you can bring your complaint to us. 

The size of any linked businesses, and any further businesses linked in continuous chain, will be added to the size of your business. 

Autonomous enterprise

An autonomous enterprise is a business that is separate from the influence or control of any other business.

This means:

• it does not have a holding of 25% or more in any other enterprise
• no enterprise, public body or group of enterprises has a holding of 25% or more in it
• it is not linked to another enterprise through an individual

Linked enterprises

Two businesses are linked when they have at least one of the following relationships: 

• One business holds a majority, or is able to exercise sole control over a majority, of the shareholders' or members' voting rights in another.
• One business is entitled to appoint or remove a majority of the administrative, management or supervisory body of another.
• A contract between the businesses enables one to exercise a dominant influence over the other. 

A typical example of linked enterprises is a parent business and a wholly-owned subsidiary. 

A continuous chain develops through these links. For example, a business will be linked to its parent business, and to that parent’s parent business, as well as to any other subsidiaries of these businesses, if in each case the requirements for a ‘link’ are satisfied.

Businesses can also be linked if the same person or people own or control both enterprises. If the two enterprises offer goods or services in the same or an adjacent market, we would treat them as linked. If the two enterprises are offering goods or services in different markets, we would treat them as separate businesses. 

Partner enterprises 

Two businesses are partner enterprises when one business holds between 25% and 50% of the shareholding or voting rights in another business. 

You may be able to bring your complaint to us if your business is a micro-enterprise or small business and it guaranteed a business loan. .

However, for a guarantee or security you gave personally for your business – for example not one business guaranteeing the loan of another business – you can only bring your complaint to us if it was given on or after 1 April 2019.

If you have given a guarantee for a loan which relates to another individual or someone else’s business, please see our information about guarantor loans.