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The Australian Financial Complaints Authority received 105,000 complaints for the last financial year – a rise of 9 per cent year on year.
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has revealed another record of financial complaints, with a 9 per cent increase over the 2023–24 financial year.
AFCA said in a 1 August statement that it had received 105,454 complaints and noted that scams were a “key driver” behind the rise.
“While we haven’t seen the scale of increase we experienced a year ago, these record numbers are still too high,” Chief Ombudsman David Locke said.
Complaints rose an alarming 34 per cent in 2022–23.
“We are disappointed we haven’t seen a reduction. Our view is that firms could be resolving more complaints themselves, or preventing them in the first place,” Locke said.
“We continue to take steps to be able to keep up with the increasing demand for our service, but it’s in everyone’s interests that rising complaints are tackled at the source.”
Looking at complaints just related to scams, numbers rose even sharper, with an 81 per cent increase over the previous period amounting to 10,951. On average, AFCA received 913 complaints per month, compared to 504 in the previous period.
Complaints concerning unauthorised transactions were most common this financial year.
“We saw scam-related complaints dip a little towards the end of the year, possibly reflecting recent government and industry efforts to prevent and address scams. Our hope is that this improvement continues in the coming year,” Locke said.
Locke also said he was looking forward to “clearer obligations” from the government concerning mandatory codes on scam reporting and response. He also observed that sophisticated scammers were now targeting the superannuation industry.
“We urge super fund trustees to review the steps they have in place to protect members from fraud,” Locke said.
“The fact that scam and unauthorised transaction complaints in super are still low means there’s a window of opportunity for trustees to act so we don’t experience the sorts of issues seen elsewhere.”
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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