ASIC has released a guide to internal dispute data collection and reporting ahead of the introduction of compulsory reporting next year.
Since September last year, when ASIC launched an updated regulatory guide to internal dispute resolution (RG 271), financial services firms have been required to record all complaints received.
RG 271 expanded the scope of IDR, saying the definition of a complaint is “an expression of dissatisfaction made to or about an organisation, related to its products, services, staff or handling of a complaint, where a response or resolution is explicitly or implicitly expected or legally required”.
A consumer or small business is not required to expressly state the words “complaint” or “dispute”, or put their complaint in writing, to trigger a financial firm’s obligation to deal with a matter under its IDR process.
ASIC said some matters that firms might have categorised as feedback or comment must be treated as complaints under this definition. Social media posts expressing dissatisfaction on a site owned or controlled by the financial firm have to be treated as complaints (posts on third party social media platforms don’t count).
The reporting regime kicks off at the end of February next year, when 11 designated companies, must report their IDR data covering the period from July to December 2022.
The initial group includes Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, NAB, Westpac, AMP, Dai-Ichi Life, Insignia Financial, United Super, Unisuper, Retail Employees Superannuation and AustralianSuper.
For all other financial services businesses, the first reporting period will be January to June 2023, with reports due at the end of August.
From then on, companies must lodge their IDR data with ASIC every six months. The purpose of the reporting regime is to make the way financial services groups handle IDR more transparent.
The guide covers how complaints are defined, when they are to be classified as open or closed, the formatting of data, the product and service categories that are covered, and how ASIC intends to conduct validation checks.
It includes a glossary of terms and definitions that aligns with the terminology used by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.
ASIC said in RG 271 that firms have addressed the “foundational aspects” of their IDR process but needed to do more work in areas such as achieving organisation-wide understanding of the types of matters that must be dealt with through IDR, increasing the analysis of complaint data, improving the timeliness of complaint handling and enhancing the quality of its communications with complainants.