Codes of practice set standards of good industry practice for financial firms when dealing with people who are, or who may become, individual or small business customers in areas relating to:

• service provision
• standards of professional conduct
• practice standards
• ethical behaviour.

View our code compliance publications

Our Code Compliance and Monitoring team (Code Team)

The Code Compliance and Monitoring Team (Code Team) is a separately operated and funded business unit of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).

We support independent committees to monitor compliance with codes of practice in the Australian financial services industry to achieve service standards people can trust.

Our aim is to support financial firms to:

• strengthen relationships with their customers
• improve complaints handling
• reduce the number of customer disputes through improved service delivery.

We administer the:

• Banking Code of Practice
• General Insurance Code of Practice
• Insurance Brokers Code of Practice
• Customer Owned Banking Code of Practice
• Life Insurance Code of Practice

Code subscribers

More than 600 financial firms voluntarily subscribe to one of the five codes we administer.

To find out if your financial firm subscribes to one of these codes, check the code subscriber registers for the life insurance, general insurance, banking, insurance broking or customer owned banking industries.

Code Compliance Committees

All five codes are monitored by independent Code Compliance Committees. On behalf of these committees we:

• conduct code monitoring activities
• investigate alleged code breaches
• share experiences of good industry practice.

Compliance investigations

Each code sets out individual rights for consumers, including lodging a complaint that a financial firm may not have met its obligations under its industry’s code.

Investigating these types of concerns helps us monitor financial firms’ compliance, and support them to remedy breaches of the code.

We do not:

• provide compensation to consumers – decisions awarding compensation are not made by the Code Compliance Committees or the Code Team, but can be made by bodies such as AFCA (via its dispute resolution process), courts and tribunals
• issue fines or penalties – that is the role of regulators such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).

Training

We offer training for financial firms and consumer representatives on the roles and functions of Code Compliance Committees, including how they monitor and investigate code breaches.

Report a Code concern

The Code Team’s role is to ensure financial firms comply with their industry’s code of practice. We do not provide compensation.

If you are seeking compensation, talk to your financial firm or make a complaint with AFCA.

If you believe a financial services provider may have breached one of the codes of practice we administer, you can report your concern to the Code Team.

Before contacting us, please check your financial firm is a code subscriber by consulting registers for the life insurance, general insurance, banking, insurance broking or customer owned banking industries.

To report your concern, email the Code Team or call 1800 931 678 and ask to speak with the Code Team Investigations Manager.