Annual Review 2021–22
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
- Financial difficulty complaints
- Scams
- 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
- Legacy complaints
- Complaints outside AFCA’s Rules
- Systemic issues
- Code compliance and monitoring
- Engagement, awareness and accessibility
- Corporate information
- AFCA General Purpose Financial Report
- Glossary
Year at a glance - full text
Complaints
- 72,358 complaints received. Up 3% on 2020–21
- 71,152 complaints closed. Down 4% on 2020–21
- The average time to close a complaint was 72 days 1
- 17,826 open cases. Up 9% on 2020–21
- $207,733,327 in compensation was provided to consumers through AFCA’s dispute resolution processes
Complaints received by product line 2
|
Product line |
Total |
|---|---|
|
Banking and finance |
42,392 |
|
General insurance |
18,563 |
|
Superannuation |
5,286 |
|
Investments and advice |
3,207 |
|
Life insurance |
2,482 |
|
Not yet determined |
382 |
|
Non-rules |
74 |
Complaints close by product line 2
|
Product line |
Total |
|---|---|
|
Banking and finance |
43,530 |
|
General insurance |
17,244 |
|
Superannuation |
5,181 |
|
Investments and advice |
2,890 |
|
Life insurance |
1,890 |
- 4,442 complaints about financial difficulty received
- 3,490 small business complaints received
- 3,552 COVID-19 complaints received
- 8,282 complaints excluded due to being outside AFCA’s jurisdiction
Average time taken to close complaints
|
Time |
Percentage |
|---|---|
|
0–30 days |
32% |
|
31–60 days |
30% |
|
61–180 days |
29% |
|
180–365 days |
6% |
|
Greater than 365 |
3% |
Open cases by age
|
Age |
Percentage |
|---|---|
|
0–30 days |
34% |
|
31–60 days |
20% |
|
61–180 days |
23% |
|
180–365 days |
11% 3 |
|
Greater than 365 |
12% 4 |
- 3,653 Small business complaints closed
- 4,983 Financial difficulty complaints closed
Complaints resolved before determination
|
|
Total |
|---|---|
|
Total |
66,303 |
|
Resolved by agreement or in favour of complainant 5 |
73% |
|
Resolved in favour of financial firm 5 |
3% |
|
Outside Rules/Terms of Reference |
12% |
|
Discontinued/withdrawn |
11% |
|
By assessment |
1% |
Determinations
|
|
Total |
|---|---|
|
Total |
4,849 |
|
Found in favour of complainant |
24% |
|
Found in favour of financial firm |
76% |
1 Average of days the complaint was active.
2 Complaints may belong to more than one product type.
3 43% of cases aged between 181–365 days are on pause. Complaints are paused when we are unable to progress due to insolvency or litigation through the courts.
4 77% of cases aged over 365 days are on pause. Complaints are paused when we are unable to progress due to insolvency or litigation through the courts.
5 This include complaints resolved through Conciliation, Negotiation and Preliminary Assessment.
Complainants
Complaints received by state and territory
| State and territory |
Percentage |
|---|---|
|
New South Wales |
30% |
|
Queensland |
18% |
|
Northern Territory |
1% |
|
Western Australia |
8% |
|
South Australia |
6% |
|
Victoria |
28% |
|
ACT |
2% |
|
Tasmania |
1% |
|
Not provided |
7% |
|
Other countries |
1% |
- Top 10 languages (other than English) service was provided in by complaints
- Mandarin
- Arabic
- Cantonese
- Taiwanese
- Vietnamese
- Persian (Farsi)
- Afrikaans
- Punjabi
- Greek
- Hindi
- 2,225 complainants identified as First Nation peoples
- 1% of complainants required an interpretation service
- 18% of complainants had a representative
Gender of complainants
| Gender |
Percentage |
|---|---|
|
Male |
59% |
|
Female |
41% |
Members
- 42,488 members
- 84% of members did not have a complaint lodged against them
Top five member types with the most complaints
|
Member type |
Total |
|---|---|
|
Bank |
28,339 |
|
General insurer |
15,487 |
|
Credit provider |
7,811 |
|
Superannuation fund trustee/adviser |
3,765 |
|
Life insurer |
1,962 |
Customer service
- 142,572 calls to our phone lines
Calls to our phone lines
|
Phone line |
Total |
|---|---|
|
Consumer and small business |
119,653 |
|
Membership |
14,914 |
|
COVID-19 support |
8,005 |
- Average wait time for calls 45 seconds
- Service was provided in 71 different languages other than English
- 21,066 online live chats
- 77% complaints lodged online
Systemic issues
- Identification and investigation of systemic issues resulting in the remediation to 167,033 consumers
- $18,275,607 in refunds made to consumers
- 993 potential systemic issues identified
- 153 systemic issue investigations referred to financial firms
- 67 systemic issues reported to regulators
- 46 systemic issues resolved with financial firms
- 23 serious contraventions of the law and other breaches 1
- 1 possible serious contraventions of the law reported to regulators
- 22 other reportable matters reported to regulators
1 Reported under section1052E(1)-(3) of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth)
