Closed cases

AFCA resolved a total of 71,152 complaints between 1 July 2021 and 30 June 2022.

As in the previous year, half of the complaints were closed at Registration and Referral, the first step in the resolution process where the complaint is referred to the financial firm to resolve.

It was pleasing to see that the introduction of RG271 in October 2021, which reduced internal dispute resolution timeframes generally, did not have a significant impact on the ability of financial firms to resolve matters early.

Complaints that were unable to be resolved at Registration and Referral were progressed to Case Management (25%) or Rules (10%) where they were resolved.

The remaining complaints were resolved through Preliminary Assessment (6%) and decision (7%).

On average, it took 72 days to resolve a complaint, a significant decrease from the previous year, where complaints took an average of 76 days to resolve.

Thirty-two per cent of complaints were resolved within 30 days of AFCA receiving them. With almost the same amount again (30%) being resolved between 31 and 60 days.

More complex cases that took 61 to 180 days to resolve made up 29% of closed complaints. The remaining 9% of closed complaints took more than 180 days to resolve.

Complaints closed

Compensation awarded or obtained through AFCA in dollars

Average time to close a complaint in days

Complaints resolved before determination

	2018–191	2019–20	2020–21	2021–22
Total	38,252	72,145	68,911	66,303
Resolved by agreement or in favour of complainant3	71%	73%	75%	73%
Resolved in favour of financial firm3	3%	3%	3%	3%
Outside Rules/Terms of Reference	15%	12%	10%	12%
Discontinued /withdrawn	10%	12%	12%	11%
By assessment	1%	1%	1%	1%

Determinations

	2018–191	2019–20	2020–21	2021–22
Total	3,170	4,912	5,017	4,849
Found in favour of complainant	26%	30%	23%	24%
Found in favour of financial firm	74%	70%	77%	76%

Average time taken to close complaints

Age	2018–19 1	2019–20	2020–21	2021–22
0–30 days old	15,577	21,510	19,874	22,747
31–60 days old	15,205	24,189	21,511	21,462
61–180 days old	7,200	24,658	24,821	20,607
181–365 days old	1342	5,590	5,352	4,436
More than 365 days old	N/A	734	2,370	1,900

Stage at which complaints closed

Age	2018–19 1	2019–20	2020–21	2021–22
At Registration	17,980	36,564	37,049	36,568
At Case Management	11,884	21,169	19,962	17,896
At Rules Review	0	7,997	5,945	6,904
Preliminary Assessment	1,404	5,916	5,457	4,510
Decision	587	5,035	5,515	5,274

Complaints closed by product type

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 18–19 and 19–20 have been calculated pro rata using monthly averages.

² Only includes AFCA and FOS complaints.

³ This includes complaints resolved through Conciliation, Negotiation and Preliminary Assessment.

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