Advisers not recognising complaints: FSCL

In the scheme’s latest annual report, Susan Taylor said it was concerning that only one in 10 consumers could name one disputes resolution scheme and only 60% recognised one when prompted.

“These results show that more has to be done to ensure that consumers know there is somewhere they can turn if they have a problem with their financial service provider. First and foremost, providers need to be willing to tell their consumers what they are entitled to,” Taylor said.

In the year to June 30, FSCL received 3159 inquiries or complaints from consumers about financial service providers, an 84% increase on the previous year. Of those, complaints and inquiries about lenders and finance companies headed the list (834), followed by transactional service providers such as trading platforms and foreign exchange dealers (616).

Of the 202 inquiries that went through to the scheme’s formal complaints processes, 17 related to insurance advisers, four to financial advisers and two to mortgage advisers.