Consumers using buy now pay later products are happy with the service they are getting, judging by the low level of complaints last year.

The Australian Finance Industry Association’s Buy Now Pay Later Code of Practice passed its first anniversary earlier this month and the BNPL Code Compliance Committee has produced a report on the sector’s first year of self-regulation.

The level of complaints through internal dispute resolution was 1.6 per 1000 customers and the level of complaints to AFCA was less than 0.1 per 1000 customers.

The committee received five complaints, four of which it referred to the BNPL providers.

It said it expects the number of complaints to increase in response to ASIC’s Regulatory Guide 271 on internal disputes. The guide, which came into effect in October last year, says any “expression of dissatisfaction” by a customer is to be recorded as a complaint.

Accredited providers are Afterpay, Brighte, hummgroup, Klarna, Latitude, Openpay, Payright and Zip.

The code compliance committee’s report is disappointing. It contains very little, besides reporting complaint numbers.

Part of the committee’s role is to help establish best practice in the industry but it did not report on any issues or initiatives. Nor did it use its powers to conduct any investigations.

Given the industry is so controversial, it should have done more.