The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) is required by legislation to operate in a way that is accessible, independent, fair, accountable, efficient and effective.

The efficiency requirement recognises the importance of complaints being resolved in a timely way. We have designed a flexible complaints resolution process to cater for the range of complaints that we consider.

To maximise our effectiveness, we consult with stakeholders, including consumer representatives and financial firms, and we aim to continually improve our performance.

We consult and engage with stakeholders in a range of ways. These include industry forums and liaison meetings, consumer liaison group meetings, meetings with individual financial firms and consumer groups, and through the regular publications we release.

We recognise repeat complaint issues and work with financial firms to resolve the underlying causes of these issues. We also support regulators by providing information to them about these issues.

AFCA provides an efficient and effective service through a number of means, including:

• having compensation limits that are consistent with regulatory requirements, and exclusions that are appropriately limited in their scope
• having clear and appropriate time limits for complaints to be lodged with us
• following a clear and robust complaints resolution process
• having provisions in our Rules and Constitution that set out the consequences for financial firms if they don't comply with our Rules. This includes reporting any non-compliance or other serious breach to ASIC or another appropriate regulator
• resolving complaints in a timely way, and having standards that are monitored and reported internally to ASIC and publicly through our Annual Review.