The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has recently published (19/10/2023) its latest ‘Systemic Issues Insights Report’, covering the second half of the 2022 to 2023 financial year. During that time AFCA received 81 reports, 55 of which were related to systemic matters.
The report gives a brief overview of the figures involved, with the number of systemic issues identified in banks, 30, outpacing the combined systemic issues of superannuation, investments and advice, life insurance, and general insurance which together totaled 25.
The case studies included in the report highlighted the importance of consumer complaints in drawing attention to problems and specifically to systemic issues. Some case studies also showed the trend of a firm self-identifying a problem and, in many of those cases, taking measures to correct the issue but falling short, necessitating AFCA’s intervention.
In total, AFCA conducted 88 systemic issues investigations between January and June, resolved 54 systemic issues, and oversaw over $61 million in refunds to consumers.
You can read more about the report on AFCA’s website here.
To read the report itself click here.