AFCA says it's received more than 400,000 complaints in its first five years

The news: The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) says it has received more than 400,000 complaints in its first five years of operation and secured $1.2 billion in compensation and refunds.

The numbers: In the last financial year, financial complaints reached a record 97,000. During the half decade, AFCA has worked with 16,500 scam victims, more than 7,500 people affected by natural disasters and more than 30,000 facing financial difficulty. More than 17,000 complaints were related to Covid-19. AFCA's systemic issues work, which tackles broader problems rather than single companies, recovered $340 million for roughly 4.9 million people.

The context: AFCA was established after the 2017 Ramsay Review to handle complaints previously managed by three separate ombudsman services. AFCA chief ombudsman David Locke said the organisation continued to be a cheaper and more efficient alternative to court processes and over the past five years AFCA had resolved 60% of cases in less than 60 days, with only 6% going to a formal decision.