The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has updated its online comparative reporting tool, the AFCA Datacube, to include information relating to all financial complaints lodged with it between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020.
The upgrade will allow comparisons with complaints data from the Authority’s commencement on 1 November 2018.
Chief Executive of AFCA and Chief Ombudsman, David Locke said anyone accessing the AFCA Datacube could now see how insurers, banks, financial advisers, superannuation funds or other financial firms handled consumer complaints escalated to the Ombudsman.
Mr Locke said the free tool provided the public with transparent and accessible information about complaints-handling right across the financial services sector.
“It also allows financial firms to see how their complaints-handling compares with others in the market,” Mr Locke said.
“The AFCA Datacube includes information about the number of complaints lodged about a financial firm, how long it takes a firm to resolve a complaint and whether a financial firm responds to complaints in a timely manner,” he said.
“It also allows people to compare financial firms side-by-side.”
He said the latest data showed the early impact of COVID-19, seen in the spikes in complaints relating to travel insurance and early access to superannuation in particular.
“With so many travel plans impacted, it was inevitable that there would be a big increase in travel insurance claims as well as disputes regarding ‘charge-back’ requests on credit cards,” Mr Locke said.
He said with the early access to superannuation, complaints initially related to delays in payments.
“It was challenging for many superannuation funds to process such a high number of requests in a short period of time,” Mr Locke said.
“AFCA worked proactively with the funds to resolve consumer concerns as they arose and to learn any lessons before the second phase of withdrawal requests commenced in early July.”
He said this had resulted in far fewer complaints during the second early release application period and meant consumers were able to get their money sooner.
The AFCA Datacube can be accessed at this PS News link.
