ASIC updates complaints guidance

ASIC IDR karen chester

30 July 2020
| By Oksana Patron |
image
image
expand image

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has released final updated guidance on how financial firms should deal with consumer and small business complaints, under their Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) procedures. 

The regulator said that updated standards and requirements would help drive fair and timely compliant outcomes for consumers and ‘sharpen industry’s focus on systemic issues’ and would include the following (RG 271): 

  • Introduce reduced timeframes for responding to complaints, including superannuation complaints; 
  • Set out what information firms must include in written IDR responses to allow consumers to decide whether to escalate their complaint; 
  • Set new timeframe requirements for customer advocate reviews of appeals against IDR decisions; and 
  • Give guidance about how firms should deal with representatives who were not acting in consumers’ best interests. 

“Complaints handling is the first step in the dispute resolution framework and plays a critical role for firms to restore consumer trust when things have gone wrong,” ASIC deputy chair, Karen Chester said. 

“A financial firm’s approach to complaints handling is a meaningful measure of how it treats its customers and listens to their voice.” 

According to Chester, better IDR not only would benefit consumers and small business, but would arm the boards of financial firms with rich and real time data on the customer experience and whether their needs were being met or not. 

New requirements would also recognise the harm that could be done by some debt management firms and would also assist in addressing long-standing concerns about their behaviour which are shared by industry and consumer representatives. 

ASIC said it would publish a legislative instrument alongside RG 271 which would clarify the enforceable IDR standards and requirements. 

In the coming months, the regulator would also conduct further consultation on the IDR data reporting regime, which was recommended by the Ramsay Review into dispute resolution and complaints framework and passed into legislation in 2018.  

Separately, ASIC was following up with each of the firms that were subject to supervisory on-site visits about the changes they were making to improve IDR outcomes. 

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

3 weeks 4 days ago

This verdict highlights something deeply wrong and rotten at the heart of the FSCP. We are witnessing a heavy-handed, op...

1 month ago

Interesting. Would be good to know the details of the StrategyOne deal....

1 month ago

Insignia Financial has confirmed it is considering a preliminary non-binding proposal received from a US private equity giant to acquire the firm. ...

1 week 3 days ago

Six of the seven listed financial advice licensees have reported positive share price growth in 2024, with AMP and Insignia successfully reversing earlier losses. ...

5 days 16 hours ago

Specialist wealth platform provider Mason Stevens has become the latest target of an acquisition as it enters a binding agreement with a leading Sydney-based private equi...

4 days 20 hours ago