AFCA's bumper year

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority has had a bumper first year of operation, if that is that right way to look at it, with a big increase in complaints (compared with its predecessors), a high level of complaint resolutions and a big compensation payout.

AFCA received more than 73,000 complaints during its first year - a 40 per cent increase over the complaints its predecessor organisations received in the previous year.

The organisation has previously noted that the Hayne royal commission created heightened awareness of the financial ombudsman service.

It resolved 77 per cent of complaints received and it paid out A$185 million in compensation.

AFCA chief executive David Locke said one of his goals was to see better internal dispute resolution.

"Financial institutions must resolve more customer disputes themselves, so that fewer people come to us," he said.

Despite the high number of complaints, only 3 per cent of Australians know anything about the financial ombudsman. To address this, in September AFCA kicked off a roadshow. It will conduct community forums in 77 regional centres over the next six months.

Around a third of complaints were about banks and 44 per cent were about credit. General insurance was another big area of dispute.