Complaints to AFCA about banking fell nine per cent over 2025/25 with scam complaint numbers, surprisingly, in decline.

Scam-related complaints fell 45 per cent to 5,977, contributing to the overall fall in banking and finance complaints, but AFCA is braced for these numbers to rise.

Overall there were 54,581 banking and finance complaints, AFCA said.

AFCA received more than 100,000 complaints in 2024/25, so banking continues to account for more than half.

“Whilst any decline [in scam complaints] is positive and we welcome the progress made by government and industry to prevent scams, caution should be exercised in interpreting AFCA's scam numbers,” CEO David Locke said yesterday.

“AFCA currently only sees a small proportion of scam complaints, and towards the end of the financial year we saw an uptick in some scam types that cause great harm. The number of scam cases are far too high and behind every case is a consumer who has been traumatised and often suffered life changing impacts.”  

“We urgently need mandatory industry codes and further action from all to prevent, protect and respond to scams. This evil trade causes so much human harm, and the law and regulatory framework we currently have is not sufficient to address this. 

“Industry should not wait to take action; every day we see the impact of more people affected” Locke said.

The three most complained about financial products overall in 2024/25 were personal transaction accounts, motor vehicle insurance and credit cards. 

The top three issues were misleading product or service information, delay in insurance claim handling, and service quality.