Resource ● Last updated 19 February 2025 ● 14 min read
How can I complain about my bank to AFCA?
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Is this page for me?
This page has information for people:
- who have spoken to their bank about their financial problem, and
- received a decision about their problem, and
- want to ask AFCA to review that decision.
Haven’t spoken to your bank yet?
If you’re having financial problems and are falling behind on your financial commitments, you can contact your bank to see if they can help.
Banks are legally obligated to consider requests for assistance. Banks usually have a financial hardship team that helps customers develop repayment plans. The team may be able to provide:
- Reduced, or deferred payments for a period;
- The extension of a loan term;
- Debt restructures;
- Interest rate concessions; or
- Waivers for fees and charges.
If you’re unhappy with the solution you’re offered by the bank, you can ask the Australian Financial Complaints Authority for help.
This page explains how you can make a complaint to AFCA about your bank.
Who is AFCA?
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) is a not–for–profit company that helps people resolve disagreements with ‘financial firms’. Financial firms are banks and other finance institutions.
✔ AFCA is independent from the government.
🗙 AFCA is not a court or tribunal.
AFCA resolves complaints by helping people and their banks reach agreement on a solution to a particular financial issue. If a solution can’t be reached by agreement, AFCA can decide the outcome.
Visit AFCA’s website for more information (or if your financial issue is not with a bank)
AFCA has extensive in-depth and relevant information on their website.
- This resource gives you a brief explanation of who AFCA is, what they do, and how you could engage with them. This resource only looks at how AFCA can help you when dealing with banks.
- AFCA can help with issues relating to superannuation, insurance, investments, and financial advice. This resource does not look at these issues.
If you feel comfortable navigating AFCA’s website, or if you want to engage with AFCA in relation to decisions made by financial firms other than banks, you should visit AFCA’s website.
What issues can I complain to AFCA about?
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) can help with a range of issues relating to your dealings with your bank. This could include disputes about a bank’s management of, and actions on your:
- Credit card account
- Home loan
- Personal loan
- Investment and small business loans
- Bank account
AFCA has a comprehensive list of complaints you can raise about banking deposits and payments products on their ‘Banking deposits and payments products and issues‘ page. AFCA also provides a list of services that may assist you where it is unable to help on their ‘Other places to get help‘ page.
If you’re not sure if AFCA can assist with your complaint, give them a call and they will let you know if they can help you.
Phone: 1800 931 678
Examples of situations AFCA can help resolve
Situations where you might make a complaint to AFCA are:
- The bank has mismanaged bank transactions in relation to your bank account, such as deposits you have made and payments made from the account.
- The bank has refused or not responded to your request to vary your loan repayments, even though you have told them that you are going through financial hardship
- The bank has issued you a default notice, but you don’t understand why even after asking them for an explanation
- The bank is continuing legal or debt collection action against you, even after you have asked them for help as you are dealing with financial hardship
- The bank has breached a law or duty they owe towards you
- The bank has charged you a fee, charge, premium, rebate or interest rate, and you don’t understand why or don’t think that you owe
- The bank misled you about a product or service you got from them
When do I make a complaint to AFCA?
The first thing you should do, before making a complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), is to try to resolve the problem directly with your bank. This includes making a formal complaint to them.
If you’ve tried to resolve your problem through a formal complaint process and you’re not satisfied with your bank’s response, you can make a complaint to AFCA. You can also ask AFCA for help if your bank hasn’t responded to your formal complaint within a reasonable timeframe.
Time limits
AFCA can only accept complaints within certain time limits.
- Six years from when you become aware you have suffered the loss you want to complaint about (or ought to have become aware you suffered the loss), or
- Two years from you receiving a response from your bank after you made a formal complaint (through their internal dispute resolution process).
Preparing to make a complaint
Check you’ve taken the follow steps before making a complaint to AFCA. If you struggle with any of these steps, AFCA may have information to help guide you once you’ve commenced a complaint.
- What’s the issue you want to complain about?
- What’s the type of loss you’ve experienced?
- What’s the ideal outcome for you?
- Prepare and collect relevant supporting documents
- Will you deal with AFCA yourself or through a representative?
Remember: AFCA has extensive in-depth and relevant information on Remember: If you do your research and get organised before making a complaint, the complaint process will be more efficient.
AFCA’s ‘Before you complain to us‘ page has a helpful checklist to help you get organised.
You should be prepared to tell AFCA what specific bank action you are unhappy with – this could be:
- Something the bank did mistakenly or incorrectly
- Something the bank did poorly or handled badly
- Something the bank failed to do altogether
You should be prepared to tell AFCA what loss you’ve suffered because of the issue you want to complain about. This may include:
- Financial loss, and/or
- Non–financial loss
Financial loss: An example of financial loss is the difference between where your finances are now, compared to where your finances might have been if the bank hadn’t acted in the way you have an issue with. It is important that you prove a direct link between the action you have an issue with and the loss that you say have suffered.
Non-financial loss: An example of non-financial loss is if you experienced unnecessary stress or inconvenience because of the bank’s actions. Please note that AFCA’s approach to non-financial loss is conservative and is capped. Non-financial loss is usually found in exceptional situations and where the conduct of the bank was unusually excessive.
You should be prepared to tell AFCA what an ideal outcome might look like to cover the loss you’ve experienced. AFCA is guided by their Rules in terms of the types of outcomes they could provide.
You’re more likely to get a better outcome through AFCA if, before commencing your complaint, you do your research.
Read information published by AFCA in relation to the types of outcomes they can provide to match the outcome you seek with the type of loss you’ve suffered.
Before applying, you should collect and organise all relevant documents supporting your complaint. Organising your paperwork will help you prepare your application.
You don’t need to provide all of the documents you have to AFCA at the beginning. However, once the complaint has commenced, you’ll be able to quickly respond to AFCA’s requests for documents making the complaint process more efficient.
If you’re experiencing financial difficulty, you should also prepare a Statement of Financial Position. A Statement of Financial Position helps AFCA understand your current financial position and how you propose to pay your debts.
AFCA is designed for you to engage with the complaints process personally. This means you are directly involved.
However, you can appoint an authorised agent to represent you in your AFCA complaint if you wish to. This person could be:
- someone that you trust, and
- someone who doesn’t have their own interests in your financial affairs.
It could also be a professional who charges you a fee for their service. Read information published by AFCA in relation to authorised agents.
Ready to make a complaint?
Once you’ve carried out the steps above, you can make a complaint to AFCA by completing this online form. Making a complaint to AFCA is free.
A complaint must be:
✔ about a Financial Firm
✔ that is an AFCA Member
✔ at the time of the complaint.
All Australian financial services licensees, Australian credit licensees, authorised credit representatives and superannuation trustees are required to be members of AFCA. You can search for your bank’s contact information on the AFCA website ‘Financial Firm Search‘ page.
What does AFCA do once they receive a complaint?
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) follows a specific complaint resolution process once they receive a complaint.
Stage 1: Registration and referral
Stage 2: Case Management
Stage 3: Decision (if required)
Once a complaint is received, AFCA provides details of the complaint to your bank and asks for a response. The bank will confirm that the complaint is resolved, or provide a final response outlining their position, or request a Rules review if it believes your complaint falls outside AFCA’s jurisdiction.
- AFCA will close the complaint if your bank can show your dispute has already been resolved.
- AFCA will go to the next stage if your bank’s final response is not likely to resolve the complaint or includes a request to progress the complaint.
- If your bank requests a Rules review, AFCA will progress the complaint to their Rules team and will go to the next stage if your complaint falls inside AFCA Rules.
You can download the AFCA Guideline to Registration and Referral to read more about the process.
Once a complaint is received, AFCA provides details of the complaint to your bank and asks for a response. The bank will confirmAFCA will decide on how to manage your case once they have registered your complaint. AFCA will place it into one of three streams.
- Fast Track
- Standard & Complex
- Financial Difficulty
Depending on which stream your matter is placed in, AFCA will help you and the bank try to resolve the complaint by either going into negotiation or a conciliation conference.
Negotiation: A negotiation is where AFCA will help you and your bank to reach an outcome together. This might involve AFCA exchanging settlement offers between you and your bank and talking each of you through what those offers mean.
Conciliation conference: A conciliation conference is an informal conference where AFCA will facilitate you and your bank to share your side of the complaint. AFAC will then provide you and your bank with guidance on what issues have been raised and suggest some outcomes you could reach. A conciliation conference will take place over the phone.
What’s the difference between the three streams?
Fast Track: Your complaint will be placed into Fast Track stream if it is low value and relates to a single issue. Complaints under this stream does not go to conciliation. AFCA will try to help you and the bank resolve the complaint through negotiation only, and via a quicker timeframe than the other streams.
Standard & Complex: Your complaint will be placed into the Standard & Complex stream if:
- It is not low value or if it relates to more than a single issue, and
- It does not primarily relate to financial difficulty
AFCA may try to resolve complaints under this stream through either negotiation or telephone conciliation.
Financial Difficulty: Your complaint will be placed into the Financial Difficult stream if:
- It is not low value or if it relates to more than a single issue, and
- It primarily relates to financial difficulty
AFCA will mostly likely try to resolve complaints under this stream via telephone conciliation.
What happens if AFCA can’t resolve the complaint at this stage?
If you and your bank can’t reach an agreement during the case management phase, AFCA will send both parties their preliminary assessment of the matter.
If you or the bank reject that preliminary assessment, your complaint will progress to AFCA making a decision.
If you or the bank reject that preliminary assessment, AFCA will review the complaint and make a decision. An AFCA decision is made in writing and will set out:
- The relevant facts available at the time AFCA made the decision,
- The relevant issues arising in the complaint and what AFCA thinks of those issues, and
- AFCA’s decision as to how the complaint should be resolved and why.
‘Remedies’ provided by AFCA to resolve the complaint will require a firm or complainant to undertake a course of action. These can include:
- the payment of a sum of money;
- the forgiveness or variation of a debt;
- the release of security for debt;
- the repayment, waiver or variation of a fee or other amount paid or owed to the bank including variation in the applicable interest rate; and/or
- the reinstatement, variation, rectification or setting aside of a contract.
Once you’ve received AFCA’s decision you can decide whether you want to accept it or not. If you accept it, your bank will be bound by it. If you don’t accept it, neither party will be bound by that decision.ess.
Example of a hypothetical AFCA decision
*This example provides a general guide to how AFCA might resolve complaints. It may not be indicative of how your particular complaint will be resolved.
- Lara holds a residential home loan account with ABC Bank.
- Lara told the Bank that she lost her job and wanted to place her home loan repayments on hold for five weeks until she relocated to her new job.
- She spoke with the bank’s hardship team member, Stephen. Stephen didn’t explain her right to apply for hardship assistance as an individual borrower or what appropriate assistance ABC Bank could offer.
- Stephen incorrectly informed Lara that ABC Bank could not hold repayments to allow Lara to relocate to her new job and begin repayments again. Lara suggested that she provide an updated statement of financial position once starting her new job and discuss options to clear the arrears after the five-week period; Stephen refused.
- As a result, Lara was confused and highly stressed. She attempted to borrow money from family to make the repayments, but she was unable to make any payment on time.
- ABC Bank then reported adverse Repayment History Information (RHI) on this account during this period.
- Lara complained to AFCA one year later.
- AFCA attempted to resolve her complaint via telephone conciliation between ABC Bank and herself. AFCA’s preliminary assessment was rejected, and the matter was referred to an ombudsman for decision.
- In the resulting decision, the determination was in favour of Lara. The remedies were as follows:
- ABC Bank must pay Lara $500 in compensation for non-financial loss resulting from the stress of its conduct; and
- ABC Bank must write to the relevant credit reporting body(s) to request the removal of the adverse RHI it has reported.
- AFCA gave Lara 30 days to accept it. Once she accepts, ABC Bank has 14 days to comply with these remedies.
What if AFCA can’t help?
There are likely three situations when the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) won’t be able to help.
- Too early in the process
- Wrong jurisdiction
- You don’t accept the outcome
Go to your bank before making a complaint to AFCA. Your bank may be able to help you meet your financial obligations, and AFCA suggests using your bank’s internal dispute resolution processes before making a complaint.
Your circumstances and legal issue may not be something AFCA can decide, ie. AFCA may not have jurisdiction to resolve the issue. You may need legal advice to understand your options.
If you don’t accept the outcome through AFCA, get legal advice to understand the cost and risk of what it might take to get another outcome. This often involves expensive and stressful legal proceedings with the bank. To understand this option, you may be eligible for free legal help through Justice Connect.
This resource was last updated on 19 February 2025. This is legal information only and does not constitute legal advice. You should always contact a lawyer for advice specific to your situation. Please view our disclaimer for more information.
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