AFCA supports proposed ban of unsolicited telephone sales for two insurance products

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has submitted its feedback on two ASIC consultations on banning cold-call sales of direct life insurance and consumer credit insurance (CCI), and proposed changes on internal dispute resolution (IDR).

AFCA said it strongly supports ASIC’s proposed ban of unsolicited telephone sales of direct life insurance and CCI, as it would help protect consumers “against predatory sales tactics and being sold unsuitable and inappropriate financial products.”

Read more: ASIC wants to ban telephone sales of life insurance

“AFCA notes that the proposal only captures unsolicited telephone sales made when general advice or no advice is given,” AFCA said. “We believe that the proposal should go further and prohibit all unsolicited attempts to sell to a consumer, not just telephone sales, and this should apply to all financial products.”

AFCA also backed ASIC’s initiative to update RG 165, as well as proposed approaches outlined in the paper.

Read more: ASIC wants to lift standards on complaints handling

AFCA said it believes that:

• IDR requirements should be consistent across financial firms;
• IDR standards should apply to all complaints;
• IDR requirements should be designed to fit together with external dispute resolutions (EDR) requirements; and
• publication of IDR data should be coordinated with publication of EDR data to produce comprehensive, consumer friendly information about complaints.