The Federal Government has appointed the transition team to lead to the establishment of a single one stop shop financial complaints ombudsman service – the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
The Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer announced the appointment of the transition team to the Financial Services Council (FSC) Leaders Summit in Sydney at the same time as revealing that the Ramsay Committee had been tasked with scoping out a compensation scheme of last resort.
O’Dwyer said the transition team would be led by the Reserve Bank’s Dr Malcolm Eadie.
She said the transition team would scope out the process for moving to the new AFCA arrangement before moving to discuss the transition with the existing external dispute resolution (EDR) bodies – the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), the Credit and Investments Ombudsman (CIO) and the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT).
O’Dwyer said the formation of AFCA was vital to removing consumer uncertainty about where they could go to seek redress for wrongdoing and losses incurred in the financial services industry.
On the question of a compensation scheme of last resort, she said the Government would await for the recommendations of the Ramsay Committee with a view towards moving forward with such arrangements.
