Complaints & Consumer Protection

Complaints provide valuable insights into how consumers experience financial services and where governance, processes or customer outcomes may be falling short. While effective complaint handling is a regulatory obligation, it is also an important mechanism for identifying risks, improving services and strengthening consumer trust.

Financial services businesses are expected to maintain effective Internal Dispute Resolution (IDR) arrangements, respond to complaints fairly and efficiently, and use complaint data to identify emerging issues and systemic risks. Increasingly, regulators and external dispute resolution bodies such as AFCA are focusing not only on how complaints are resolved, but also on whether organisations are learning from them and implementing meaningful improvements.

Consumer protection extends beyond complaint handling. It includes ensuring clients are treated fairly, recognising and supporting vulnerable consumers, maintaining effective disclosure practices and embedding customer outcomes into governance and decision-making processes.

This resource hub explores complaint handling, AFCA expectations, Internal Dispute Resolution requirements, complaint reporting, consumer protection obligations and emerging issues affecting customer outcomes. These resources provide practical guidance to help financial services businesses strengthen complaint management processes, improve consumer outcomes and meet regulatory expectations.