The Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) recently made a submission to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) arguing that public reports of complaint data require more granularity than what is currently proposed in Regulatory Guide 267 (RG 267).
Specifically, AIST is requesting that data concerning number of accepted complaints, complaint outcomes, product groupings and historical complaint comparisons should be delineated by sector. In the case of super, this would be based on existing APRA categories – industry funds, retail funds, public sector funds and so on. AIST argued “this data is important from a consumer perspective (what types of organisations behave in certain ways) as well at system level.”
Beyond this, AIST said volumes of complaints should be stipulated at the individual firm level (an individual super fund) as well as at a “conglomerate level,” meaning, for example, a super fund “which forms part of a banking conglomerate.”
AIST added that because the super system “comprises many organisational linkages and outsourcing of services,” public complaint data should also include any entity to which services have been outsourced.
These amendments to the current consultation paper, AIST said, would “aid AFCA, consumers, the regulators, and industry to better understand the causes of complaints, where regulatory attention needs to be directed, as well as potentially where regulatory reform is needed.”
Late last year, we addressed some of the new requirements for advice licensees under the AFCA regime. You can read about them here.
