The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has reminded financial firms that are members of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) to notify the regulator of their AFCA membership by 30 November or face late fees.
Licensees that fail to do so will also be in breach of their licence conditions.
More than half of AFCA’s 37,000 members are yet to notify ASIC of their membership details.
“It is essential that licensees provide updated details to ASIC,” the regulator said.
“Financial firms have been given an extension of time to notify ASIC and we will not be extending the financial notification date beyond 30 November.”
AFCA members that were former Financial Ombudsman Service members should enter a commencement date of 1 May 2018. The start date should be the same date as the effective date.
For AFCA members that were former Credit and Investments Ombudsman members, the commencement date will be the date the AFCA membership certificate was received. The start date should be the same date as the effective date.
The new complaints authority was announced by former revenue and financial services minister Kelly O’Dwyer in May.
It was established to be a one-stop shop for financial complaints and provide consumers and small businesses with access to free, fast and binding dispute resolution.
AFCA commenced accepting complaints from 1 November.
