The Role Of The Australian Financial Complaints Authority(Revisited)

“What we‘ve seen over the last four months of operation is we’ve actually had 23, 643 complaints brought, which averages to about 292 a day. We’ve actually resolved almost half of those already, 49 per cent of those have been resolved and in the four months of operation we’ve secured $54 million for consumers and small business owners with financial disputes.”--AFCA David Locke Earlier this week, the GRC Professional Podcast caught up with Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) Chief Ombudsman and CEO David Locke. The relatively new ‘one-stop-shop’ for complaints is meant to reduce the complexity around filing complaints. It is part of the overarching effort by the government to deal with misconduct within the financial sector and raise the bar back up to the level of ‘community standards’. Main points from the podcast Discussion: • This podcast looks at the role of the AFCA and the number of complaints • Impact of expanded remit back to 2008 • The impact that AFCA expects to have on the financial sector • Reaction to some of the revelations from the royal commission hearings Other Links • Australian charities and Not-For-Profits Commission (ACNC): https://www.acnc.gov.au/ • AFCA website: https://www.afca.org.au/\ • Link to the Review of the financial system external dispute resolution and complaints framework: https://static.treasury.gov.au/uploads/sites/1/2017/06/R2016-002_EDR-Review-Final-report.pdf