The Australian Financial Complaints Authority will be required to name financial firms in its published determinations from this week, as it reveals its top ten tips for advisers.
Coming into effect from 1 October 2019, AFCA will will adopt these changes around the publication of its determinations:
- Financial firms will be identified in determinations that are issued and published from 1 October 2019
- The financial firm and any joined financial firm will be named on the front page of the determination. The complainant or other parties will not be named.
- When AFCA issues the determination, it will notify the parties that the determination will be published and that the financial firm or firms will be named
In its September 2019 release, the new combined authority also noted that a party to a complaint may apply to AFCA requesting that the determination not be published or that the party not be named in that publication. It added that a financial firm must provide compelling reasons for publication not to occur and that the relevant AFCA Ombudsman will decide whether there are compelling reasons not to publish.
In the same release, AFCA offered its top ten tips for financial advisers. Taken from its September update, this top ten list is reproduced below:
This update follows the announcement in late August that ASIC has given its approval for AFCA to ‘name names’ in its published findings (see: AFCA Given Permission to Name Names).
