Complaints against the superannuation industry fell 16 per cent, according to a preliminary data snapshot as at 30 June 2025 released by the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
This improvement was welcomed by AFCA CEO and chief ombudsman, David Locke, who further highlighted that complaints about delays in claim handling by superannuation funds had also fallen by 39 per cent over 2024–25.
“The reduction in superannuation complaints is a positive sign that improvements are being made, but we’re still concerned that the top three issues relate to service quality and we urge superannuation funds to improve service standards,” Locke said.
However, this improvement came among another year of near-record high complaints, with Locke urging the financial services industry to do more to reduce this figure.
Despite an overall 4 per cent decline in complaints, Locke stated that the 2024–25 figure is “still unacceptably high”, with AFCA receiving 100,745 complaints across the financial services industry (down from last year’s record high of 104,861).
According to the data, personal transaction accounts, motor vehicle insurance and credit cards were the most complained about financial product over 2024–25, while the top three issues were misleading product or service information, delays in insurance claim handling and service quality.
“We’ve now had three years of high complaints,” Locke said. “Firms have more work to do to ensure fair responses to complaints are delivered earlier, without people having to take the extra step of coming to us.”
Meanwhile, investment and advice complaints rose 18 per cent as at 30 June 2025, following a series of failures from the industry including United Global Capital, Shield Master Fund, First Guardian Master Fund, and Brite Advisors PL.
Additionally, the self-managed super fund (SMSF) industry saw an increase of 95 per cent in complaints to 1,323. According to AFCA, this accounted for a third of complaints in investments and advice, with allegations of failing to act in the client’s best interest recording an increase of 124 per cent to 1,266.
“What we’re seeing in complaints is a clear pattern of conflicted advice models and the inappropriate use of self-managed super funds that ultimately isn’t in the customer’s best interest,” Locke said. “This only highlights the need for the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort for victims of unlawful advice.”
Locke further welcomed the large decrease in scam-related complaints, which fell by 45 per cent to 5,977 over the period, which contributed to the overall decline in banking and finance complaints (down by 9 per cent).
“While any decline is positive and we welcome the progress made by government and industry to prevent scams, caution should be exercised in interpreting AFCA’s scam numbers,” he said.
Locke noted that AFCA only sees a small proportion of scam complaints, although there was an uptick in scam types towards the end of the financial year.
“The number of scam cases are far too high and behind every case is a consumer who has been traumatised and often suffered life changing impacts,” he said.
“We urgently need mandatory industry codes and further action from all to prevent, protect and respond to scams.
“This evil trade causes so much human harm, and the law and regulatory framework we currently have is not sufficient to address this. Industry should not wait to take action; every day we see the impact of more people [being] affected.”
AFCA has received approximately 570,000 complaints to date, and secured $1.8 billion in compensation or refunds for consumers.
