Britain’s Supreme Court handed lenders a partial victory on Friday, overturning elements of an earlier Court of Appeal judgment that had threatened to unleash tens of billions of pounds in compensation claims over motor-finance commissions. In a ruling issued after the London market closed at 4:35 p.m., the five-judge panel found that commissions paid by banks to car dealers were not secret bribes and that dealers did not owe a fiduciary duty to borrowers. The decision eases, but does not eliminate, financial pressure on major lenders. Lloyds Banking Group, Close Brothers, Santander UK, Barclays and Bank of Ireland have already set aside almost £2 billion to cover potential redress, while ratings agency Moody’s had warned the total bill could reach £30 billion. Analysts at RBC Capital this week put the likely industry cost closer to £11 billion, and the scale may fall further in light of the court’s findings. Regulatory uncertainty persists. The Financial Conduct Authority, which banned discretionary motor-finance commissions in 2021 and opened a historic misconduct probe in January, said it will announce before markets open on Monday whether it intends to consult on a formal redress scheme. The Supreme Court’s judgment centred on three test cases involving South Africa’s FirstRand and the UK’s Close Brothers, and its implications could extend to millions of car loans written before the 2021 ban.