Forty-two per cent of UK automotive retailers have missed the application deadline set by the Financial Services Authority, which means they might not be authorised in time to sell insurance-based products like GAP, mechanical breakdown insurance and credit protection when the new legislation hits in January.

An AM survey, carried out via the am-online.com website, found that 58% of retailers who responded had applied to the FSA prior to the July 13 deadline. Should their applications not contain any errors, they are guaranteed to receive accreditation to the new rules by the end of the year. The rest have no such guarantees, which means they will not be permitted to engage in any FSA-regulated activity after January 14, 2005, until their application is processed.

Applications can be completed and checked online – go to www.fas.gov.uk for details.

The AM survey sample size was 119, accounting for more than 2% of the UK’s 5,900 retail outlets.