AFCA undertook consultation in relation to proposed changes to the AFCA Rules and Operational Guidelines between March and May 2023. The proposed changes were drafted in response to some of the recommendations outlined in Treasury’s 2021 Independent Review of AFCA (IR Recommendations). AFCA also took the opportunity to strengthen the operation of its fairness jurisdiction arising from its 5 years of operation.

The changes address key themes from the Independent Review, in particular the need to ensure an efficient process delivering procedural fairness; support for genuine and good faith engagement with our processes; balance in the exercise of our discretions and ensuring the safety and wellbeing of our staff and participants.

Under Rule A.23.3, AFCA is required to consult with stakeholders including Financial Firms and key consumer community and industry organisations, before seeking approval from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) to make amendments to the Rules or Operational Guidelines that would have a material impact on the AFCA scheme.

AFCA would like to thank all stakeholders who participated in the consultation process, whether via formal submissions, feedback in forums or otherwise. The feedback provided greatly helped AFCA to finalise the proposed changes.

In October 2023, AFCA requested ASIC consider and approve the finalised material changes to the Rules and Operational Guidelines following the consultation period. By written notice to AFCA, ASIC approved the material changes in January 2024, with the changes to take effect from 1 July 2024.

This report includes information on the consultation, the feedback received, how AFCA has addressed the feedback, and the changes that will be made to the Rules and Operational Guidelines. AFCA has undertaken additional work (beyond these Rules changes) to respond to the recommendations made in the Independent Review.  For more information about this please see our website. AFCA continually strives to improve our services to ensure that we meet the needs of our stakeholders and the community.

Consultation process

On 27 March 2023 AFCA released a Consultation Paper to seek stakeholder views on the proposed changes to its Rules and Operational Guidelines. The consultation closed on 22 May 2023, after running for an eight-week period.

AFCA adopted a new flexible consultation model sharing information in different formats, and a state-of-the-art website page, featuring an interactive online consultation paper ensuring a user-friendly and accessible experience for all stakeholders. Complementing this, AFCA hosted a significant number of engagement events, both online and in-person to engage in conversations with stakeholders about the proposed changes.

AFCA conducted 33 separate stakeholder engagement events. These events included sessions with member firms, peak bodies, associations, consumer groups, Paid Representatives and two public webinars with over 1100 attendees. During our engagements we were able to listen to stakeholder feedback about the proposed changes and directly answer questions and explain our approach.

Engagement events by industry

Response to consultation

AFCA received submissions from a range of stakeholders including:

• Industry peak bodies and associations
• Member Financial Firms
• Consumer groups
• Paid Representatives
• Law firms

Of these, 33 submissions were provided on a non-confidential basis. All non-confidential submissions have been published on AFCA’s website.

The below figures show the breakdown of submissions received by stakeholder type as well as product area: 

Submissions received by stakeholder ¹

¹ AFCA received and considered feedback from a balanced and wide range of stakeholder groups. This chart reflects the total number of submissions received, noting that many Consumer Groups provided group or joint submissions.

AFCA’s response to feedback

AFCA is grateful to all respondents for taking the time to provide their feedback. It was considered carefully and helped shape the final drafting of the proposed Rules and Operational Guideline changes which were submitted to ASIC for approval. In granting approval of the material changes, ASIC noted the extensive consultation that AFCA had undertaken and the feedback provided by stakeholders. As an organisation dealing with large volumes of complaints AFCA is committed to improving our practices to ensure that we can deliver a service to parties that is fair, independent and efficient.

Read the AFCA Rules and Operational Guidelines with approved amendments in markup.