Banks are paying out very little in compensation to victims of scams and frauds, with $48 million paid to customers in 2023/24, ASIC disclosed in its inaugural report ‘Insights from internal dispute resolution data reporting’.
Financial firms reported 159,188 complaints relating to scams and fraud issues. Approximately 52% of complaints were resolved on the same day.
ASIC said the top three outcomes for scam and fraud issue complaints were: no remedy, or apology or explanation only (45%), a service-based remedy (41%), and a monetary remedy (17%).
Australians have lost more than $2.7 billion to scams in the last year, ASIC has previously said, and this is likely to be a material underestimate.
Banks reported “a high number of complaints” handled via internal dispute resolution protocols overall in 2023/24, ASIC disclosed in its inaugural report ‘Insights from internal dispute resolution data reporting’.
In the 2023/24 financial year, financial firms reported 2,420,611 complaints about banking and finance products.
Of those complaints, 71% were resolved on the same day, ASIC said.
More than $219 million in monetary remedies were provided to banking and finance product complainants.
The top three products for banking and finance complaints were:
? non-cash systems (21%)
? credit cards (20%), and
? personal transaction accounts (17%).
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority’s Chief Ombudsman, David Locke said “the publication of this data enhances transparency, giving us a fuller picture of consumer complaints in Australia and enhancing understanding of the complaints environment in financial services.
“We endorse ASIC’s message encouraging firms to foster a positive complaints management culture that delivers quality outcomes for consumers.”
In 2023/24, a record of nearly 105,000 complaints were escalated to AFCA by consumers and small businesses. This was more than double the number of complaints to its three predecessor schemes in their final year before AFCA opened its doors six years ago.