AFCA complaints show First Nations consumers still face major financial barriers

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) received 2,461 complaints from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander consumers in 2024–25, highlighting persistent barriers to fair banking, insurance and superannuation.

AFCA says these complaints most often involve unauthorised transactions, poor or delayed responses to hardship requests, lengthy delays in claims handling, and mis‑selling of funeral and other insurance products, underscoring ongoing difficulty accessing basic services many other Australians take for granted.

Deputy Chief Ombudsman Dr June Smith said “First Nations people continue to face disproportionate challenges and barriers when interacting with financial services”, and warned that AFCA’s figures likely capture only a fraction of the problem because many people never escalate disputes beyond their financial firm.

AFCA reports that First Nations complainants frequently raise digital exclusion, including limited internet access, unreliable mobile coverage and the impact of bank branch closures on communities that already face higher costs and fewer local services. It has urged firms to ensure staff can recognise digital exclusion, language and cultural barriers, vulnerability and financial abuse, rather than relying solely on automated systems during internal dispute resolution.

National data supports those concerns. The Australian Digital Inclusion Index finds First Nations peoples in remote and very remote communities have digital inclusion scores well below the national average and are more likely to be “highly excluded”, while Mapping the Digital Gap research shows that remote communities have much lower rates of daily internet use than non‑First Nations Australians and a higher share of people who are not online at all.

Closing the Gap Outcome 17 commits governments to achieving equal levels of digital inclusion for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by 2026, yet official reporting shows that internet access and use remain lower in remote and very remote areas, meaning digital‑only banking and superannuation can still lock people out.

AFCA says it has adjusted how it handles complaints from First Nations people through a culturally informed Equity of Access program and a Reconciliation Action Plan. Dr Smith has described the program as “the beginning of a major shift in how we deliver our service”, with the aim that complainants feel seen, heard and supported through the process.

Across all customers, AFCA received 100,745 complaints in 2024–25, a 4 per cent fall from the previous year but still the second consecutive year above 100,000 – a volume Chief Ombudsman David Locke has called “unacceptably high”.