The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has published its snapshot of complaints it has received from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020.

In summary:

• People made 80,546 complaints in the year against 19% of licensee members;
• AFCA received an average of 621 calls per day to its consumer line;
• AFCA resolved 78% of cases, with a majority being settled in 60 days or less. 73% of complaints were settled by agreement or in favour of the complainant, with banks being the most complained about financial institution;
• Since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic in March, AFCA has received 4,773 complaints relating to COVID-19. Most of these complaints have been about general insurance claims (1,813) with more than 1,500 of these being travel insurance complaints;
• Credit complaints related to credit reporting, responsible lending, financial firm failure to respond to a request for assistance, incorrect fees/costs and service quality;
• There were 92 definite systemic issue findings and 37 possible serious contraventions and other breaches reported to ASIC under section 1052E(1) of the Corporations Act.

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