Fund Regulatory Update
/Financial complaints hit 72k for past 12 months
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has received over 72,000 complaints in the past 12 months, a three per cent increase on the past financial year. Disputes were raised with banks, insurance companies, superannuation funds, investment companies and financial advisers, with natural disasters increasing numbers.
The top four banks had almost 20,000 complaints between them, a rise of 10 per cent, with the top four insurance companies seeing around 9,400 complaints, up 19 per cent. In total, licensed financial companies with complaints against them dropped five per cent than the year before. Delays in claims handling were some of the most common complaints.
Most complaints were resolved quickly, with 67 per cent resolved with an agreement between the two parties. Credit cards were the most complained about product at 13 per cent of total complaints, but this was down eight per cent on last year.
Top areas for disputes included personal bank accounts, home loans, home building insurance, and motor vehicle insurance.
Sirius Financial loses AFSL
Sirius Financial Markets has lost its Australian financial services licence and two former executives have been banned from the industry for eight years. Sirius Financial, trading as Trade 360, had an off-shore call centre, Toyga Media, to source clients for high-risk trades in contracts for difference (CFD) and margin foreign exchange contracts products issued by Sirius Financial.
Call centre operators were found to have used pressure tactics and gave clients personal advice when it was not licensed to, having engaged in unconscionable conduct and conduct that was likely to mislead or deceive. Jonathan Schneider and Oskar Pecyna, two former executives, have both been banned from the industry for eight years. Both men were involved in the company breaches and were not adequately trained or competent to be running a financial services business, ASIC concluded.
