The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has marked its second anniversary by announcing it had received more than 153,000 complaints in its first 24 months, resolved around 135,000 disputes and awarded more than $474.5 million in compensation and refunds to consumers and small businesses.
Chief Executive and Acting Chief Ombudsman at the Authority, Justin Untersteiner said around 60 per cent of the complaints it received were resolved in less than 60 days with around 50 per cent of all the complaints resolved at the first stage of the Authority’s processes.
“This means we, and our members, are resolving complaints early, leading to better outcomes for both the industry and for consumers,” Mr Untersteiner said.
He also announced that the Authority had signed up ‘more than 40,000 organisations and individuals in the Australian financial services sector as ‘members’ – including banks, superannuation providers, insurers, and financial advisers.
“Since 1 November 2018, just 2,575 licence members had a complaint raised against them,” he said.
“We are also seeing an increasing number of voluntary members, those who are not required to be members of AFCA but choose to be,” Mr Untersteiner said.
“These members see the value we can add, both in helping resolve complex disputes, but also to provide their customers with open and transparent mechanisms for dealing with complaints when they do arise.”
Speaking at a virtual forum which attracted more than 5,000 AFCA members, Mr. Untersteiner said the Authority’s goal was to partner with the industry, consumers and the community to help shape a system which mitigated disputes in the finance sector.
“We want to share insights and work proactively with our members to resolve issues early – removing stress for everyone,” he said.
