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
Please note that due to our IT upgrade, all data regarding consumer advocates and financial counsellors is for the period from 1 July 2023 until 16 June 2024.
Complaints referred to AFCA by consumer advocates
|
|
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Financial counsellor |
1,158 |
1,383 |
1,528 |
1,733 |
|
Community lawyers |
1,079 |
1,092 |
1,488 |
1,162 |
|
Support workers |
622 |
943 |
916 |
1,231 |
|
Total |
2,859 |
3,418 |
3,932 |
4,166 |
Complaints lodged by consumer advocates
|
|
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Financial counsellor |
429 |
479 |
534 |
553 |
|
Community lawyers |
270 |
324 |
204 |
153 |
|
Support workers |
45 |
37 |
41 |
48 |
|
Total |
744 |
840 |
779 |
754 |
Top five complaints by product
|
Product |
Total |
|---|---|
|
Consumer credit |
524 |
|
Personal loans |
251 |
|
Homes loans |
123 |
|
Credit cards |
70 |
|
Home building |
47 |
Top five complaints by issue
|
Issue |
Total |
|---|---|
|
Financial firm decision |
292 |
|
Financial difficulty |
258 |
|
Service |
74 |
|
Transactions |
40 |
|
Instructions |
19 |
Stage at which complaints closed
|
|
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Registration and referral |
263 |
198 |
244 |
254 |
|
Case management |
207 |
212 |
227 |
237 |
|
Rules review |
32 |
36 |
29 |
26 |
|
Decision |
30 |
25 |
10 |
5 |
Top three credit products were personal loans, home loans and credit cards
Complaints lodged by financial counsellors
Top three credit products were personal loans, home loans and credit cards
Stage at which complaints closed
|
|
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Registration and referral |
186 |
160 |
184 |
190 |
|
Case management |
142 |
152 |
157 |
187 |
|
Rules review |
18 |
24 |
16 |
20 |
|
Decision |
13 |
5 |
3 |
3 |
Geographic spread of complaints lodged by financial counsellors
|
|
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
ACT |
2% |
1% |
2% |
1% |
|
NSW |
12% |
13% |
16% |
19% |
|
NT |
3% |
5% |
5% |
6% |
|
QLD |
12% |
20% |
16% |
14% |
|
SA |
7% |
6% |
7% |
3% |
|
TAS |
2% |
3% |
1% |
2% |
|
VIC |
50% |
39% |
43% |
46% |
|
WA |
11% |
14% |
10% |
9% |
The impact of financial counselling services
43% of complaints were lodged by financial counsellors from 10 organisations:
- The Salvation Army Moneycare (61)
- Anglicare Victoria (33)
- CatholicCare NT (29)
- Good Shepherd Australia New Zealand (21)
- Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (ICAN) (21)
- EACH (17)
- Primary Care Connect (16)
- Uniting Vic Tas (15)
- Casey North Community Information & Support Service (14)
- South East Community Links (SECL) (13)
Complaints lodged by community lawyers
Top three credit products were personal loans, home loans and BNPL
Stage at which complaints closed
|
|
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Registration and referral |
57 |
31 |
45 |
41 |
|
Case management |
53 |
46 |
62 |
37 |
|
Rules review |
11 |
9 |
12 |
5 |
|
Decision |
15 |
20 |
7 |
2 |
The impact of community legal centres
72% of complaints were lodged by community lawyers from just five organisations:
- Legal Aid NSW (47)
- Financial Rights Legal Centre (29)
- WEstjustice (17)
- Consumer Action Law Centre (9)
- Mortgage Stress Victoria (8)
