What can we learn from AFCA statistics

Below is AFCA's datacube for the period (1 July – 31 December 2019), which contains the number of complaints received, the service and product concerned, and how concerns were resolved.

What can we learn from AFCA statistics

AFCA Datacube

AFCA’s work generates a rich set of data about the issues, types and outcomes of financial complaints. Below is the snapshot of AFCA datacube for the period (1 July – 31 December 2019) which includes the number of complaints received, the service and products involved, and how complaints progressed through the resolution process.

Observations

  • Credit cards are the most complained product in the financial services spectrum
  • A majority i.e. 45% of the complaints were resolved at the registration and referral stage
  • 54% of the complaints were progressed to the case management level and many of them were closed at the case management level
  • Majority of the complaints at the case management level were resolved by agreement
  • Only 6% were reached at the decision stage out of which AFCA has made decisions 72% of the time in favour of the financial firms

Looking at the resolution at the decision stage, we can see 28% of the complaints are resolved in favour of the complainant. Each firm will have its own view on what AFCA referral rate is satisfactory, but it goes without saying that the lower this is, the better.

Questions to ask

  • What proportion of complaints are taken by the customer to the AFCA?
  • Why do certain cases reach the AFCA at all?
  • What proportion of customer complaints are satisfactorily resolved directly with the customer?
  • Are you satisfied that they have been dealt with fairly and correctly by the customer service team?
  • How does your outcome rate compare to the overall AFCA decision rate?
  • If it is significantly different (in either direction) – why is this?
  • Are there any remedial actions you can take if your rate is worse?
  • What are the problem issues or products/services?
  • Is there anything that could have been done differently?
  • What were the sticking points that meant it was not possible to resolve the complaint?