The information below shows the following:
- the number of investment disputes received in 2007-200
- the number of investment disputes received in 2008-2009
- the percentage increase or decrease in the number of investment disputes received from 2007-2008 to 2008-2009
- the percentage of disputes within each product category of investments contributing to the total number of investment disputes received in 2008-2009, and
- the percentage of total disputes for each investment product category.
The link below shows shows how new investment disputes were spread across product categories by percentage.
New investment disputes across product categories
The link below shows shows investment disputes by type.
Investment disputes by type
COMMENTARY ON NEW INVESTMENT DISPUTES
Alison Maynard Ombudsman – Investment, Life Insurance & Superannuation
The highest increase in any product line in the past year was experienced by investments. Any products linked to share market performance were likely to fall in value, at times significantly, causing consumers to review the advice which led to investment strategies being adopted in the first place. Service issues also tend to be highlighted during this time of market volatility. This is borne out by the sharp rise in investment disputes across all the product categories under this product line.
It was also a year of large corporate collapses - Storm Financial, Great Southern and Timbercorp – leaving investors in the lurch, losing many thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars and facing financial ruin. The ASIC enquiry into Storm Financial is still underway at the time of preparing this review.
The number of investment disputes received was also impacted by a number of managed investment mortgage funds suspending distributions and redemptions due to the market volatility and liquidity issues.
The ramifications of the collapse of Westpoint in 2007 were still being felt during the past year as well, though new Westpoint disputes coming to us continued to decrease significantly during the period.
See more detail on Investment disputes in the following categories:
Managed investment and Managed investment providers
Derivatives & hedging and Derivatives & hedging providers