AFCA Insights – Cognitive View

ABOUT THE AFCA DATACUBE:

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) provides consumers & small businesses with fair, free & independent dispute resolution for financial complaints.

It considers complaints about the following disputes:

Credit, finance & loans
Insurance
Banking, deposits & payments
Investments & financial advice
Superannuation

They want to give consumers & businesses the information they need to make informed decisions about their financial providers. They also want to give providers an understanding of how they compare within their industries.

Comparative reporting of complaint data

In accordance with ASIC Regulatory Guide 267 and their Rules, AFCA must publicly report information about complaints they receive and close against each scheme member, including comparative complaint data.

What is the Datacube?

AFCA's work generates a rich set of data about complaint types, outcomes, causes, and how they are being dealt with by financial firms. The AFCA Datacube is a visualization of this data – showing how many complaints are made about financial firms and what kind of outcomes are reached. The data is updated every six months to enhance transparency and provide information in a way that is accessible and useful.

The value of complaint data:

AFCA views comparative reporting of complaint data in the AFCA Datacube as an important tool they can give to:

consumers and small businesses to make informed choices about the financial products and services they use, and
for members to have a statistical understanding of how they compare with their counterparts and areas they can improve.

AFCA DATACUBE:

AFCA's work generates a rich set of data about the issues, types, and outcomes of financial complaints. The AFCA Datacube is part of its commitment to providing access to this data in a transparent and useful way.

The latest version of the AFCA Datacube houses a visualization of data for financial firms with four or more complaints in the period from 1 July 2021 – 30 June 2022.

The AFCA Datacube displays data about financial firms with four or more complaints during the period, this includes the number of complaints received, the service and products involved, and how complaints progressed through the resolution process.

COMPLAINTS RESOLUTION PROCESS OF AFCA:

1. REGISTRATION & REFERRAL:

As a first step, they refer the complaint to the financial firm and request them to respond to them and the complainant.

The amount of time that the financial firm has to respond depends on the type of complaint and what's happened previously, including whether the financial firm has had an opportunity to complete its internal dispute resolution process.

2. CASE MANAGEMENT:

If a complaint remains unresolved and progresses to the Case Management stage, they check whether it is within their Rules and is an issue that they can consider.

They select the methods or combination of methods, that they think are most appropriate to resolve a complaint fairly & efficiently. They will generally try to first resolve a complaint by informal methods and reach a settlement between the parties through negotiation or conciliation. If this doesn't work, they may use more formal methods to provide a preliminary assessment of the merits of a complaint.

Closure data includes complaints closed during the decision stage.

3. DECISION:

After they investigate a complaint & if it can't be resolved, they will issue a decision (called a determination). This is the final stage in their complaint resolution process.

Sometimes it may be appropriate for them to make a decision straight away, rather than try & reach a settlement.

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