Annual Review 2023-24
Contents
- About this Annual Review
- Year at a glance
- Board Chair message
- Chief Executive Officer and Chief Ombudsman message
- Organisational overview
- Complaints
- Who complained to AFCA in 2023–24?
- AFCA Engagement with First Nations peoples
- Overview of complaints
- Open cases
- Closed cases
- Banking and finance complaints
- Buy now pay later
- Scam complaints
- Financial difficulty complaints
- Small business complaints
- General insurance complaints
- Significant events
- Life insurance complaints
- Superannuation complaints
- Investments and advice complaints
- Cryptocurrency
- Complaints lodged by consumer advocates and financial counsellors
- Complaints outside AFCA’s Rules
- Systemic issues
- AFCA’s Code compliance and monitoring function
- Engagement, awareness and accessibility
- Corporate information
- AFCA General Purpose Financial Report
- Glossary
This year AFCA closed 104,203 cases, a substantial 21% increase from the previous year.
The distribution of closed cases was as follows:
Banking and Finance: 59,156 complaints
General Insurance: 28,684 complaints
Superannuation: 7,701 complaints
Investments and Advice: 4,118 complaints
Life Insurance: 1,411 complaints
Total compensation and refunds awarded amounted to $313,903,256, up 24% on the previous year, but in line with the increase in complaints we received.
Complaints closed
Compensation awarded or obtained through AFCA in dollars
Average time to close a complaint in days¹
Complaints closed before determination
|
|
2019-20 |
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total |
72,145 |
68,911 |
66,303 |
81,953 |
99,853 |
|
Resolved by agreement or in favour of complainant |
73% |
75% |
73% |
76% |
72% |
|
Resolved in favour of financial firm |
3% |
3% |
3% |
2% |
2% |
|
Outside rules/Terms of Reference² |
12% |
10% |
12% |
9% |
10% |
|
Discontinued/withdrawn |
12% |
12% |
11% |
12% |
15% |
|
By assessment |
1% |
1% |
1% |
1% |
0.2% |
Determinations
|
|
2019-20 |
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Total |
4,912 |
5,017 |
4,849 |
4,232 |
4,281 |
|
Found in favour of complainant |
30% |
23% |
24% |
28% |
30% |
|
Found in favour of financial firm |
70% |
77% |
76% |
72% |
70% |
Time taken to close complaints
|
Age |
2019-20 |
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
0-30 days |
21,510 |
19,874 |
22,747 |
27,203 |
34,162 |
|
31-60 days |
24,189 |
21,511 |
21,462 |
27,573 |
29,047 |
|
61-180 days |
24,658 |
24,821 |
20,607 |
24,062 |
27,301 |
|
181-365 days |
5,590 |
5,352 |
4,436 |
5,982 |
10,214 |
|
More than 365 days |
734 |
2,370 |
1,900 |
1,365 |
3,479 |
Stage at which complaints closed
|
Stage |
2019-20 |
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Registration and referral |
36,564 |
37,049 |
36,568 |
48,996 |
56,900 |
|
Case management |
27,085 |
25,419 |
22,406 |
26,664 |
32,927 |
|
Rules review |
7,997 |
5,945 |
6,904 |
5,899 |
9,609 |
|
Decision |
5,035 |
5,515 |
5,274 |
4,626 |
4,767 |
¹ This excludes complaints that were inactive for an extended period, for example, complaints that were paused because the financial firm was insolvent or due to court proceedings, and complaints that were previously closed and then re-opened.
² Complaints that were closed because they were outside AFCA’s Rules/Terms of Reference and were, therefore, excluded.
