The UK's Supreme Court will announce a long-awaited ruling on car finance commissions on Friday that could influence whether major banks face a multibillion-pound compensation bill.

Britain's highest court Friday largely overturned a lower court's ruling that certain car finance agreements were unlawful, a decision likely to bring a sigh of relief among lenders and limit the scale of compensation payments.

The Supreme Court has given a boost to banks, their investors and the government by throwing out large parts of last year’s landmark car finance ruling that threatened to unleash a multibillion-pound surge of compensation claims.