AFCA has been busy since opening on November 01.

In its first month of operation, AFCA has received 6,522 complaints from consumers and small businesses – which is 47% more than its three predecessor schemes combined.

Most of the complaints AFCA has received have been about credit (45%), followed by general insurance (21%) and deposit taking (10%). 8% of complaints received were about superannuation.  While most complaints were lodged by individual consumers, 460 complaints were lodged by small businesses.

The most complained provider type were banks with 2,367 complaints, followed by general insurers (1,159 complaints) and credit providers (1,040 complaints). While there has been a high number of complaints initially received by AFCA, less than 6% of AFCA’s licensee members have had complaints lodged against them in November.

Complaints about decisions made by financial firms are the most common reason why consumers and small businesses make complaints to AFCA. This includes issues relating to denial of insurance claims and responsible lending. Service issues, such as service quality, delay in claim handling or delay in complaint handling are the next most common issues.

Click here to read the media release

Download the AFCA snapshot of our first month of operations [PDF]

See a snapshot of our first month below