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
About AFCA membership
AFCA members consist of Australian Financial Services (AFS) licensees, Australian credit licensees, authorised credit representatives (ACRs) and superannuation trustees required, under their licence conditions, to be a member of AFCA. Other firms join voluntarily as part of a commitment to accountability in their dispute resolution.
Our members include banks, insurers, credit providers, stockbrokers, financial advisers, debt collection agencies, superannuation trustees, mortgage or finance brokers and accountants. Most members are small and medium enterprises.
AFCA receives complaints about members’ products and services from consumers and small businesses.
Pleasingly, most of these complaints are resolved early on between the member and the consumer or small business. However, where a complaint cannot be resolved, AFCA steps in and helps the parties to work together to resolve financial complaints efficiently and fairly.
At AFCA, we want to reduce complaints and positively influence industry to reduce the need for complaints to be lodged. AFCA keeps our members up to date with the latest information they need to reduce and manage complaints. This year we have engaged our members through regular Member News and Bulletins, forums, webinars and our website.
At year’s end, AFCA had 47,575 members.
- 78% were ACRs (also known as brokers)
- 22% were financial firms
- 17% of members had complaints made against them in 2023-24, up 1% on last year.
Percentage of financial firms that had a complaint about them
Percentage of members by state and territory
- New South Wales: 37%
- Victoria: 30%
- Queensland: 16%
- Western Australia: 9%
- South Australia: 5%
- ACT: 2%
- Tasmania: 1%
- Northern Territory: 0.3%
- Not provided: 0.3%
- Other: 0.02%
|
|
2019-20 |
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Number of members at 30 June |
40,493 |
40,760 |
42,488 |
44,958 |
47,575 |
|
Percentage of members who were ACRs |
74% |
74% |
75% |
77% |
78% |
|
Percentage of members who were financial service providers (FSPs) |
26% |
26% |
25% |
23% |
22% |
Member types with the most complaints (top five)
|
2019-20 |
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Bank (28,411) |
Bank (26,281) |
Bank (28,339) |
Bank (36,688) |
Bank (41,790) |
|
General insurer (15,748) |
General insurer (13,896) |
General insurer (15,487) |
General insurer (22,113) |
General insurer (21,702) |
|
Credit provider (9,857) |
Credit provider (8,216) |
Credit provider (7,811) |
Credit provider (9,837) |
Credit provider (11,188) |
|
Superannuation fund trustee/ adviser (4,734) |
Superannuation fund trustee/ adviser (3,643) |
Superannuation fund trustee/ adviser (3,765) |
Superannuation fund trustee/ adviser (5,680) |
Superannuation fund trustee / advisor (6,338) |
|
Debt collector or buyer (2,607) |
Underwriting agency (2,115) |
Life insurer (1,962) |
Underwriting agency (3,567) |
Underwriting agency (4,397) |
Member fees and charges
AFCA has experienced a significant rise in complaints. In contrast, our complaint fees and charges have not increased at the same rate, placing considerable pressure on our service.
To continue operating efficiently and meet our obligations to both consumers and members, we needed to increase our resources. These additional costs were initially absorbed by AFCA to minimise the impact on members, as we anticipated a return to historical complaint levels. However, with the sustained growth in complaints and rising business costs, AFCA can no longer absorb these operational expenses.
As a result, the AFCA Board approved a 27.7% increase in member fees and charges, effective from 1 July 2024. This increase is weighted towards individual complaint and systemic issues fees, ensuring that those who use our services more frequently contribute proportionally.
Ultimately, members have the ability to manage the costs of external dispute resolution by reducing the volume of complaints reaching AFCA. This can be achieved by strengthening their internal dispute resolution processes and resolving complaints earlier in AFCA’s process, where fees are lower.
All financial firm members pay one annual registration fee. In 2023-24 this fee was $375.55.
Members do not pay extra fees for their first five complaints closed in a financial year. This allows time to identify and address issues before paying more. It is particularly helpful for smaller members who are more affected by costs.
In 2023-24, 96% of members only paid the annual registration fee and did not receive any other fees or charges.
Use of members’ funds
The following chart shows how we used our funds in 2023-24.
