AFCA — Australian Financial Complaints Authority
The external dispute resolution scheme for the Australian financial services industry, the body consumers can escalate to when internal complaint handling does not resolve their issue.
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) is the single external dispute resolution (EDR) scheme for the Australian financial services industry, replacing the Financial Ombudsman Service, the Credit and Investments Ombudsman, and the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal in 2018. AFCA can make determinations binding on financial firms up to defined monetary thresholds.
Every AFSL holder, credit licensee, and superannuation trustee must be a member of AFCA.
AFCA is the destination for complaints that exceed RG 271’s 30-day window or where the IDR response is not accepted by the complainant. AFCA fees are charged per case to the firm — making prevention via well-handled IDR materially cheaper than escalation.