The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has received over 400,000 complaints from consumers since its establishment on Nov. 1, 2018.
AFCA was established after the 2017 Ramsay Review called for establishing a single scheme to manage disputes previously overseen by the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Credit and Investments Ombudsman, and the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal.
In its first five years, the AFCA has received more than 400,000 financial complaints, resulting in $1.2 billion in compensation and refunds.
“We have dealt with hundreds of thousands of cases over the past five years, but we are fully aware that behind every complaint is an individual, a family, or small business,” said AFCA CEO and Chief Ombudsman David Locke. “We know how stressful a financial dispute can be and how critical it is to help consumers and firms resolve their differences.
“An ombudsman service also plays an important role in supporting public confidence in engaging with the financial services sector, because we are here to help when consumers and firms can't resolve disputes on their own. We work to contribute to a fair and efficient financial services sector.”
Most of the complaints received by the AFCA were related to issues resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, rising interest rates, increased scam activity, and the financial impact of natural disasters.
In the past five years, AFCA has worked with more than 16,500 victims of scams, more than 7,500 people who took a hit from natural disasters (excluding the COVID-19 pandemic), and more than 30,000 people facing financial difficulty. It has also registered more than 17,000 COVID-19-related complaints, including disputes involving financial products such as travel insurance and superannuation.
Additionally, AFCA's systematic issues work – identifying wider issues than a single complaint – resulted in 4.9 million people receiving over $340 million.
In a speech delivered to AFCA's Member Forum last week, Locke thanked AFCA members for resolving issues and remediating their customers.
“I, too, would like to acknowledge that most of our members have not had a complaint raised against them since AFCA commenced. Each year since 2018, around just 16% of financial service provider members had complaints raised with AFCA,” he said.
