Madgwicks was delighted to host Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) Chief Ombudsman and Chief Executive Officer David Locke last night when he presented the findings of the recently released AFCA Six Month Report.
The authority received over 35,000 complaints in its first six-month period, a substantial increase from the number made under AFCA’s predecessor schemes, and largely attributable to the fallout from the Hayne Royal Commission. AFCA’s Report provides valuable insight into consumers’ areas of concern in the financial services sector.
Banks received the highest proportion of complaints when sorted by financial firm type followed by general insurers, credit providers, debt collectors, and superannuation fund trustees and advisors. Complaints ranged across a number of areas with the top five issues concerning credit reporting, unauthorised transactions, delays in claim handling, incorrect fees/costs, and denial of claims. Interestingly, over 72% of AFCA’s determinations were made in favour of the financial firm.
David’s presentation was followed by Madgwicks’ Special Counsel Rebecca van Langenberg presenting on practical lessons from the Hayne Royal Commission to complement AFCA’s data and findings.
The event was moderated by Partner Rick Goldberg who said “It’s a Madgwicks value to connect our clients with a valuable network and provide important information and updates and we are proud to live up to these values through presentations such as this”.
The full AFCA report is available to download here.
