AFCA Member e-Forums

Thank you for your participation in our Member e-Forums held last month. These were our first online Forums, and they were extremely popular! We were delighted to record over 3000 views (so far!), and to receive more than 100 questions during the Q&A

The recordings and the presentations for each of the forum sessions are available on the Member portal (Secure Services) as well as the member page on the AFCA website

We are busy finalising the dates for the next member e-Forums - once confirmed, we will share them on the website as well as the Member Portal (Secure Services) along with key details

Changes to AFCA’s fees and charges

As we approach the end of the financial year, we would like to advise you of changes to our fees and charges for 2020-21. AFCA is very mindful of the financial pressures on firms, and the challenges of the COVID 19 pandemic and has ensured that there will only be minor increases to member fees and charges in 2020-21

For more information on fees, please login in to the Member Portal (Secure Services) Member levy invoices will be available for downloading from secure services from 28 June and an email notification will be sent to you

If you have any questions about the changes to AFCA’s fees and charges, please contact the finance team via accounts@afca.org.au or 1300 56 55 62

Website maintenance this weekend

We’ll be performing maintenance on our website this weekend. As a result, our website will be out of action for a short period of time – Friday 19 June 6 pm to Sunday 21 June 6 pm. The following pages will not be available during this time:

Decision search
Member search
Online complaints form
Statement of financial position
Conciliation conference feedback form
Feedback News
Annual assessments
Membership applications form
Member Portal (Secure Services)

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience

CGC publishes annual report on general insurance in Australia

New videos for diverse communities

The Code Governance Committee (CGC) has published its annual report on the Australian General Insurance Industry. The report presents a snapshot of retail insurance trends and service standards in 2018−19 and early 2019−20 and includes 17 recommendations to help subscribers comply with Code obligations

A copy of the CGC’s annual report can be found here

AFCA has launched improved online resources in languages other than English to make it easier for all communities to access financial dispute resolution. To improve accessibility, AFCA has also increased its translated resources from 14 languages to 20 (including English)

Click here to read more. To watch the videos, click here

General Insurance CGC publishes Living the Code report

AFCA amends rules - COVID-19 small business relief measures

The General Insurance Code Governance Committee has published a new report, Living the Code: Living the Code: Embedding Code obligations in compliance frameworks

The General Insurance CGC finds that insurers must focus on creating an ethical, consumer-focused culture that is championed by the Board and underpinned by robust governance and business practices if they are to improve their compliance with the General Insurance Code of Practice.

To help insurers achieve this, the report contains 22 clear and simple recommendations about how to make the Code a living and successful document with valuable outcomes, such as:

The importance of developing a consumer-centric culture that values honesty and fairness
The need for those at the top of insurance organisations to ‘set the tone’
Robust governance processes that encourage and enable everyone in the insurance organisation to ‘live the Code’.

Click here to read more

AFCA has made changes to its rules which will affect how it deals with complaints from small business owners regarding certain COVID-19 relief measures.

The changes will:

Limit the matters AFCA may take into account when considering a complaint about a loan provided under the Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme. The Scheme is a Federal Government initiative to provide small and medium sized business with access to working capital to help them get through the impact of the Coronavirus,
Require AFCA to exclude complaints about repayment deferrals provided to small business borrowers for existing loans, where the deferral is provided between 25 April 2020 and 24 April 2021.
The changes to AFCA’s rules follow the issue of a notifiable instrument made by the Treasurer on 24 April 2020 which amended AFCA’s Authorisation Conditions and required AFCA to amend its Rules.

Click here to read more

AFCA fact sheets and approach documents

AFCA has published a series of Approach Documents, that outline how we approach certain types of financial complaints we receive. Some of these documents have previously been published by predecessor schemes

These Approaches are based on the experience of our Ombudsmen in resolving complaints and aim to provide practical information and our approach on substantive issues

Each complaint that comes to us is unique in nature, so the information in the Approaches is a guide only. Click here to read more and to find a list of all the Approach documents

End of legacy jurisdiction

On 1 July 2020, AFCA’s jurisdiction to consider complaints dating back to 2008 will end

This means that from 1 July 2020 AFCA’s ability to consider complaints will, in most cases, only extend to matters where the complainant first became aware of the loss within the last six years, or within the last two years when a complaint has been through a financial firms’ internal dispute resolution process. Section B.4 of our Rules sets out AFCA’s jurisdiction as it applies to time limits for complaints

AFCA will be unable to consider new lodgements for legacy complaints received from this date and our standard time limits will apply. However, existing complaints made under the legacy jurisdiction will continue to progress and there will be no changes to our case management approach for these complaints. In some circumstances, where a complaint falls outside of a time limit to consider a complaint, AFCA may contact the financial firm for consent to consider the complaint

Contact lists for escalations

Member portal fact sheet

AFCA has a range of resources to help you understand and navigate the complaint resolution process. Key contact details for the AFCA Executive Committee as well as the Resolution group and team are available on the Member Portal (Secure Services)

If you are facing any issues in uploading your documents to the Member Portal via Secure Services, please refer to our factsheet available on the portal as well as the website. Click here for fact sheet

Feedback and questions

If you have any questions, suggestions or want to know more about AFCA processes, email publications@afca.org.au and we'll do our best to provide an answer in a future edition