No guarantee on financial complaints agency
No final structure or legal framework appears to be settled for the proposed "one stop shop" intended to roll up three established dispute resolution schemes.Described as the "Australian Financial Complaints Authority" in budget papers for the Australian government on Tuesday night, it is far from clear that an agency or authority is the certain outcome.The final report of the Ian Ramsay-led review into dispute resolution and complaints framework floated into public view on Tuesday night along with the rest of the budget and a long list of banking sector measures.Ramsay and his panel took the view that "an industry ombudsman scheme is the appropriate model for all areas of the financial system, including for the effective resolution of superannuation disputes.""The Panel's preferred structure for the new EDR body is a company limited by guarantee," they wrote.Any new dispute resolution entity - one imposed by parliament or renewed by the financial services sector - will roll up the Financial Ombudsman Service, Credit and Investments Ombudsman and Superannuation Complaints Tribunal.Venga, the ombudsman and chief executive of the Credit and Investments Ombudsman, for one, is animated on the lack of industry consensus on any "one stop shop".The proposed one-stop shop AFCA "offers the worst compromise for stakeholders," Venga said."It will not be equipped to weed out poor corporate culture, call out moral obloquy or fix embedded organisational cultures."In a fierce media release last night Venga portrayed AFCA as a pallid entity conceived to aid the biggest bank."They know the one-stop-shop is a diversion to avoid a Royal Commission," Venga said, going on to support calls for a Royal Commission into the major banks.