Consumer complaints about the four major banks fell seven per cent last financial year, according to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority’s (AFCA) annual review.
Chief Ombudsman and Chief Executive (CEO) of AFCA, David Locke said the Commission received 70,510 complaints in the 2020-21 financial year.
Mr Locke said seven of the 10 firms with the highest number of complaints in 2020-21 had fewer disputes raised against them than in previous years.
“While we know there are challenges ahead in the coming months across the board, I hope all firms and customers continue to do what they’ve been doing – firms actively engaging with customers they think may be struggling, and customers talking to firms before a small problem becomes a bigger one,” Mr Locke said.
“The analysis also found that 56 per cent of all complaints were resolved in under two months,” he said.
“By six months, 90 per cent of all complaints were resolved.”
Mr Locke said the result demonstrated that AFCA was achieving its purpose in being faster and cheaper for consumers and firms compared to an alternative such as a court or tribunal.
“We also saw that over 70 per cent of cases were resolved in the early stages of AFCA’s process with an agreement being reached between the complainant and firm, or an outcome in favour of the complainant, without the need to progress the case to an ombudsman for a formal decision,” he said.
The Chief Ombudsman said AFCA continued to receive a high number of cases where consumers believed they had been misled into buying funeral plans.
Mr Locke said funeral plans were among the top five life insurance products complained about in 2020-21.
He said in the past 15 months, AFCA received 260 funeral plan complaints, more than half of them from people who identified themselves as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples.
The 156-page AFCA Annual Review can be accessed at this PS News link.
