Banks and banking products dominate complaint flows to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.
AFCA yesterday expressed “disappointment at another record year of complaints, after disputes reaching the ombudsman service rose a further 9 per cent to more than 105,000 in 2023-24.
“While we haven’t seen the scale of increase we experienced a year ago, these record numbers are still too high,” chief ombudsman David Locke said of the 105,454 complaints in 2023-24. This followed an unprecedented 34 per cent jump in complaints a year earlier.
“We are disappointed we haven’t seen a reduction. Our view is that firms could be resolving more complaints themselves, or preventing them in the first place,” Locke said.
“We continue to take steps to be able to keep up with the increasing demand for our service, but it’s in everyone’s interests that rising complaints are tackled at the source.”
The preliminary AFCA data snapshot showed scams were a key driver, along with a surge in complaints about comprehensive motor vehicle insurance, contributing to record complaints in the banking and finance and general insurance sectors.
Banking and finance complaints rose 11 per cent to 59,636 and general insurance complaints 4 per cent to 29,096.
Scam-related complaints rose 81 per cent to 10,951 in 2023-24, averaging 913 a month compared with 504 a month the previous financial year.
That was reflected in personal transaction accounts being the most complained about product overall, while transactions that customers considered unauthorised were the most common issue in complaints to AFCA in 2023-24.
“We saw scam-related complaints dip a little towards the end of the year, possibly reflecting recent government and industry efforts to prevent and address scams,” Locke said.
Amid higher interest rates and increased costs of living, complaints involving financial difficulty rose 14 per cent to 5,525 in 2023-24. Home loan complaints accounted for one in three of those complaints (1,828).