The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has announced it will give financial firms, including super trustees, transitional relief until 1 July 2019 to allow for the updating of mandatory disclosure documents and periodic statements with the contact details of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA).
AFCA is the new single external dispute resolution scheme for consumer and small business complaints.
A range of measures has been put in place to ensure consumers are kept informed of how and where to pursue a complaint during the transition to AFCA, which will start dealing with complaints about all financial firms from 1 November.
Under the disclosure relief provided by ASIC, financial firms will have until 1 July 2019 to update external dispute resolution details to refer to AFCA in mandatory disclosure documents, periodic statements and exit statements.
In addition, financial firms will not have to issue significant event notifications under section 1017b of the Corporations Act associated with the transition to AFCA.
Finally, ASIC’s “Regulatory Guide 165 Licensing: Internal and external dispute resolution” has been amended to require information about predecessor schemes and AFCA to be provided to complainants from 21 September.
The corporate regulator will continue to work with all external dispute resolution scheme stakeholders to ensure the transition to AFCA is as smooth as possible for both financial firms and consumers.
AFCA will replace the three existing schemes: the Financial Ombudsman Service, Credit and Investments Ombudsman and Super Complaints Tribunal.
