The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has reached a historic milestone, recording 100,000 complaints in a single calendar year.
This comes just ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Hayne Financial Services Royal Commission.
Commenting on the latest figure, AFCA chief ombudsman and CEO David Locke highlighted the concerning trend in the escalating volume of complaints reaching AFCA.
“Scam-related complaints to AFCA have nearly doubled between 2022 and 2023. They continue to be of great concern to us. We are also seeing the impact of increased interest rates and cost of living pressures, with complaints involving financial hardship also significantly higher,” he said.
In 2023, AFCA received a total of 102,790 complaints from consumers and small businesses unable to resolve disputes directly with their financial firms. This marked a notable increase of 23% compared to the previous year, as per preliminary data.
During the same year, consumers were able to secure $304 million in compensation and refunds through AFCA, indicating a substantial rise of 38% from the preceding year.
A notable surge was observed in complaints related to scams, registering an increase of 95% from 4,611 in 2022 to 8,987 in 2023. Additionally, complaints related to financial hardship totalled 5,396, reflecting a 29% rise from the previous year.
Complaints regarding various financial products within AFCA's purview – including insurance, banking and finance, investments and advice, and superannuation – also witnessed an increase.
The top five products complained about in 2023 were:
The top five issues complained about in 2023 were:
As the new year unfolds, Locke expressed hope for 2024 to be the year when anti-scam initiatives by both industry and government effectively disrupt serious and organised financial crimes.
“We also need to see a downward trend in complaints overall, with financial firms working better to support their customers and to address complaints quickly and efficiently in-house. We believe many financial firms could be doing a better job of handling complaints within their own internal complaints processes, so only the most complex cases reach AFCA – which is the role we are meant to play,” Locke said. “Instead, the volume of complaints reaching us is putting unnecessary pressure on the external dispute resolution system and inevitably causing further delays for consumers.”
As of November 2023, AFCA had received more 400,000 complaints from consumers since its establishment in 2018.
