Annual Review 2022–23
Contents
- About this Annual Review
- Year at a glance
- Acknowledgement of country
- Board Chair message
- Chief Executive Officer and Chief Ombudsman message
- Organisational overview
- AFCA Independent Review
- Complaints
- Who complained to AFCA?
- Overview of complaints
- Open cases
- Closed cases
- Banking and finance complaints
- Buy now pay later
- Scam complaints
- Financial difficulty complaints
- Small business complaints
- General insurance complaints
- Significant events
- Life insurance complaints
- Superannuation complaints
- Investments and advice complaints
- Cryptocurrency
- Complaints lodged by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- Complaints lodged by consumer advocates and financial counsellors
- Complaints lodged by paid representatives
- Complaints outside AFCA’s Rules
- AFCA’s Systemic Issues function
- AFCA’s Code compliance and monitoring functiong
- Engagement, awareness and accessibility
- Corporate information
- AFCA General Purpose Financial Report
- Glossary
AFCA closed 86,185 complaints between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023. This was 21% more complaints than it closed in 2021–22.
More than half (57%) of complaints were closed at Registration and Referral, the first step in the resolution process. The Registration and Referral stage is where a complaint is referred back to the financial firm to try and resolve the complaint with the complainant directly.
Complaints that were unable to be resolved at Registration and Referral were progressed to other stages of AFCA’s process.
Twenty-six per cent of complaints were closed at Case Management and 7% were closed at Rules Review. This was similar to last year.
The remaining complaints were resolved through Preliminary Assessment (5%) and Decision (5%).
Despite the increased complaint volumes AFCA has faced, on average, it took 69 days to close a complaint, a decrease from the previous year, where complaints took an average of 72 days to close. This is a significant decrease from 2020–21, where it took 76 days, on average, to close a complaint.
Thirty-two per cent of complaints were closed within 30 days of AFCA receiving them. With the same amount again (32%) being closed between 31 and 60 days.
More complex cases that took 61 to 180 days to close made up 28% of closed complaints. The remaining 9% of closed complaints took more than 180 days to close.
Complaints closed
Compensation awarded or obtained through AFCA in dollars
Note: 2018–19 figure only includes AFCA and Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) complaints.
Average time to close a complaint in days ²
Complaints resolved before determination
|
|
2018–19 ¹ |
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total |
38,252 |
72,145 |
68,911 |
66,303 |
81,953 |
|
Resolved by agreement or in favour of complainant |
71% |
73% |
75% |
73% |
76% |
|
Resolved in favour of financial firm |
3% |
3% |
3% |
3% |
2% |
|
Outside Rules/Terms of Reference ³ |
15% |
12% |
10% |
12% |
9% |
|
Discontinued /withdrawn |
10% |
12% |
12% |
11% |
12% |
|
By assessment |
1% |
1% |
1% |
1% |
1% |
Determinations
|
|
2018–19 ¹ |
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total |
3,170 |
4,912 |
5,017 |
4,849 |
4,232 |
|
Found in favour of complainant |
26% |
30% |
23% |
24% |
28% |
|
Found in favour of financial firm |
74% |
70% |
77% |
76% |
72% |
Average time taken to close complaints
|
Age |
2018–19 ¹ |
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
0–30 days old |
15,577 |
21,510 |
19,874 |
22,747 |
27,203 |
|
31–60 days old |
15,205 |
24,189 |
21,511 |
21,462 |
27,573 |
|
61–180 days old |
7,200 |
24,658 |
24,821 |
20,607 |
24,062 |
|
181–365 days old |
1,342 |
5,590 |
5,352 |
4,436 |
5,982 |
|
More than 365 days old |
N/A |
734 |
2,370 |
1,900 |
1,365 |
Stage at which complaints closed
|
Stage |
2018–19 ¹ |
2019–20 |
2020–21 |
2021–22 |
2022–23 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
At Registration |
17,980 |
36,564 |
37,049 |
36,568 |
48,996 |
|
At Case Management |
11,884 |
21,169 |
19,962 |
17,896 |
22,008 |
|
At Rules Review |
0 |
7,997 |
5,945 |
6,904 |
5,899 |
|
Preliminary Assessment |
1,404 |
5,916 |
5,457 |
4,510 |
4,656 |
|
Decision |
587 |
5,035 |
5,515 |
5,274 |
4,626 |
Complaints closed by product type ⁴
¹ AFCA commenced on 1 November 2018. The 2018–19 financial year covers an 8-month period (from 1 Nov 2018 to 30 Jun 2019). Year-on-year changes between 2018–19 and 2019–20 have been calculated pro rata using monthly averages.
² This excludes complaints that were inactive for an extended period, for example complaints that were paused because the financial firm was insolvent or due to court proceedings, and complaints that were previously closed and re-opened..
³ Complaints that were closed because they were outside AFCA’s Rules/Terms of Reference and were, therefore, excluded
₄ Note: 1,680 complaints had no product information, or the product had yet to be determined as at 30 June 2023. These are cases closed before referral.
