Legacy complaints building towards 1,000
The Federal Government’s decision to allow the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) to look at complaints dating back to 1 January, 2008 has already delivered a substantial workload for the authority.
The authority has used an answer to a question on notice to Senate Estimates to confirm that as at 19 November, last year, it had already received 898 complaints under the so-called “legacy” complaints process.
“As of 19 November 2019, 630 legacy complaints are open and progress and 268 legacy complaints have been closed,” it said.
And while the one-year window of opportunity for consumers and small businesses to lodge a complaint will close on 30 June, AFCA has made clear that the Government has not prescribed any timeframe for it to actually process the legacy complaints.
Tasmanian Greens Senator, Peter Whish-Wilson had asked whether the 12-month timeframe for the acceptance of legacy cases represented an adequate opportunity for potentially affected people to be made aware of the situation.
AFCA's answer said the question of the length of the timeframe was a matter for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
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