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Banks accounted for 35 per cent of the 80,546 complaints to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority last financial year, and 43 per cent of all complaints related to credit.
Complaints involving credit were about credit reporting, responsible lending, failure to respond to requests for financial hardship assistance, incorrect fees and service quality.
General insurance was the other big area of concern, accounting for 24 per cent of complaints. The issues raised included delays in handling claims, denial of claims, claim amounts and service quality.
AFCA said it received 13.7 per cent more claims in 2019/20 than it did in the previous year. It secured A$259 million in compensation and refunds.
Seventy-three per cent of complaints were settled by agreement or in favour of the complainant.
AFCA chief executive David Locke said a number of COVID-19 related issues emerged in the June quarter. Most were about general insurance claims (a large number of which were about travel insurance).
Complaints about credit providers’ failure to respond to request for assistance also picked up with the onset of the pandemic. Around 10 per cent of all complaints involved financial difficulty.
Another problem area was early access to superannuation.