The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) is required by legislation to operate in a way that is accessible, independent, fair, accountable, efficient and effective.
Our governance, management structure, policies and procedures and decision-making are designed to ensure we meet our obligation to provide an independent service. Our Rules explicitly require complaints to be considered in an independent and impartial manner.
Our Board consists of an independent Chair and an equal number of consumer directors and industry directors. Our decision panels are made up of an independent ombudsman, a consumer panel member and an industry panel member.
We provide an independent service through various means, including:
- through holding ourselves to high standards of corporate governance, and transparency and accountability to the community
- through our Operational Guidelines and Rules, which set out how we will ensure our process is fair and balanced for all parties
- by ensuring our leadership and our decision makers are independent and free from material conflicts of interest
- by having an Independent Assessor to consider complaints about the standard of our service
- by having a Constitution and Rules that clearly and transparently set out how financial firms should interact with us, ensuring that they cannot unduly influence the outcome of any complaint.
- by requiring all members of AFCA to meet the costs of the service by paying an annual registration fee, user charges, and fees for every complaint received about them. Payments have to be made whatever the outcome of the complaint. Find out more.
