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The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) will commence operations starting Nov. 1, thanks to the authorisation from the minister for Revenue and Financial Services.
“Consumers and small businesses across Australia will benefit from the establishment of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority,” said Kelly O’Dwyer, minister for Revenue and Financial Services. “AFCA will have expertise to deal with all disputes across the entire financial services industry, including superannuation and small business lending disputes. For the first time ever, consumers will be able to go to one place to resolve any kind of financial complaint, and the new AFCA scheme will operate under significantly higher monetary limits and compensation caps to boot.”
All financial firms that are required to have a dispute resolution system would be required to become members of AFCA by Sept. 21. The process for applying for membership will be rolled out in the coming months.
Until the new financial dispute resolution (EDR) scheme commences, consumers can continue to lodge their complaints with the two ASIC-approved EDR schemes – the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Credit and Investments Ombudsman (CIO) – and the statutory Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT). The SCT will continue to operate beyond AFCA’s commencement to resolve the existing complaints it has on hand.
AFCA will soon consult publicly on the AFCA terms of reference (known as the AFCA Rules) and the scheme's interim funding model.
