Banks and other financial institutions will have to accept social media criticism of them as legitimate complaints, under new standards for internal dispute resolution being proposed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.ASIC has issued a consultation paper setting out new standards for consumers and small business IDR.The social media reference comes under a broader definition of "complaint", which is one of the more contentious parts of the consultation paper. Other proposed changes include reduced complaints handling timeframes, clearer written reasons for decisions, more comprehensive reporting requirements and closer attention to systemic issues"There is room for much improvement when it comes to handling consumer complaints in our financial system," said ASIC deputy chair Karen Chester in a statement.The proposed standards have been informed by consumer research. ASIC said it was concerned that a significant number had trouble finding out how to make a complaint and 18 per cent of surveyed complainants dropped out or withdrew their complaint before it was concluded.Only 45 per cent of complainants who received an unfavourable outcome reported receiving an explanation of the decision from the financial institution.ASIC is proposing to extend the definition of a complaint to include "expressions of dissatisfaction made to or about an organisation", including on social media platforms. Under the current definition a complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction made to an organisation, where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected.The expanded definition would also cover expressions of dissatisfaction about staff, and not just products and services.ASIC concedes that the inclusion of expressions of dissatisfaction "about" an organisation is a significant development, establishing social media as a legitimate channel for making complaints."We consider this to be appropriate, given the long-established patterns in how consumer complain to organisations are changing significantly," the consultation paper says.At a minimum, complaints made through a company's own social media platform would have to be dealt with through the company's IDR process in cases where the consumer is identifiable and contactable.Companies would be expected to "adopt a proactive approach to identifying complaints made on their social media platform".Greater interaction with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority will be a feature of the new standards. Financial institutions will have to provide more data to the ombudsman and ASIC and there will be minimum content requirements.The maximum IDR timeframe for superannuation complaints would be reduced from 90 days to 45 days. For credit complaints involving hardship notices or requests to postpone enforcement proceedings and default notices, the timeframe would stay at 21 days. For all other complaints the timeframe would be reduced from 45 days to 30 days.