The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) yesterday updated its online portal to include information about all financial complaints lodged with the body from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2020.
The publicly accessible tool, the AFCA Datacube, allows anyone to see how banks, financial advisers and other financial firms handled consumer complaints that were escalated to the Ombudsman. It provides details such as the number of complaints lodged about a financial firm, and whether or not the group responded in a timely manner.
“This free tool provides the public with transparent and accessible information about complaints handling right across the financial services sector. It also allows financial firms to see how their complaints handling compares with others in the market,” said AFCA CEO and Chief Ombudsman David Locke.
The Datacube breaks the mortgage broking industry into three categories: mortgage brokers, mortgage aggregators and mortgage managers.
Over the financial year, there were 108 complaints specifically made in relation to mortgage brokers, with 36 involving NAB-owned BLSSA Pty Ltd, 22 concerning Mortgage Choice, 10 regarding Bestwell Mortgage, and seven involving Auscred Services, the licensed credit assistance provider of Lendi.
The rest of the complaints were spread among what AFCA considers “very small” mortgage broking businesses.
Mortgage aggregators garnered 99 complaints over the period, with the majority divided among Loan Market (24), Australian Finance Group (21), Connective (21) and Finsure (13). The four groups averaged a 28.2% referral resolution rate – the percentage of complaints resolved following AFCA referring the complaint to the group, eliminating the need to progress to case management – with Connective leading the group at 61.9% and Loan Market sitting lowest at 4.17%. .
In AFCA’s mortgage manager category, there were 327 complaints over the period, with the top four spots inhabited by Bluestone Mortgages (82), Liberty Financial (44), Mortgage House (44) and Resimac (32). The four companies averaged a 35.7% referral resolution rate, with Liberty sitting significantly higher than the others at 59.09%.
