Despite the financial services industry introducing COVID-19 relief packages for businesses and homeowners, it’s fair to say that the collective reputations of our banks, insurance companies and superannuation funds, continues to take a beating.
An extensive review into the financial services industry puts much of the blame for customer dissatisfaction on systemic issues that have resulted in less than optimal dispute resolution procedures (known as IDR’s).
In July, the regulator, ASIC, announced new regulation to drive “fair and timely complaint outcomes” for consumers and sharpen the finance industry’s focus on its “systemic issues”. Briefly, the regulation:
- introduces reduced timeframes for responding to complaints, including superannuation complaints; sets out what information firms must include in written IDR responses to allow consumers to decide whether to escalate their complaint;
- sets new timeframe requirements for customer advocate reviews of appeals against IDR decisions;
- The time companies have to respond to statutory demands from 21 days to 6 months; and,
- and, gives guidance about how firms can deal with representatives who are not acting in consumers’ best interests.
Businesses in the financial services sector have until October 2021 to comply with RG271, which is a generous timeframe driven by COVID-19 stresses.
More details about RG271 can be found on the ASIC website : https://asic.gov.au/regulatory-resources/find-a-document/regulatory-guides/rg-271-internal-dispute-resolution/
Yours sincerely,
Brian Carter
Chairman