Systemic issues are those that we identify that may have affected, or have the potential to affect, a number of customers beyond the parties to a dispute.
By investigating systemic issues, we can help consumers in an affected group to obtain compensation that is due to them when there has been some error. For our members, the investigation of systemic issues helps raise industry standards.
We aim to identify systemic issues as early as possible, with most matters being identified by staff in the early stage of the dispute resolution process.
The member is then given an opportunity to respond to us before a decision is made as to whether a possible systemic issue is confirmed as a definite systemic issue.
Investigations into systemic problems are carried out by us in consultation with legal counsel and the individual product area Ombudsmen. Often legal advice and/or industry advice is required. If it is concluded that there is a systemic issue, options for resolving the matter are put to the member.
There are generally two outcomes for the resolution of any systemic issue:
- ensuring that the problem is fixed at its source, and
- ensuring that customers who have experienced loss as a result of the problem are appropriately compensated.
We are obligated, both under our Terms of Reference and as an ASIC approved external dispute resolution scheme, to report systemic issues to ASIC on a quarterly basis. The reports do not identify the member, but include details of the nature of the problem and the manner in which it was resolved. A member is only identified to ASIC if it does not rectify the matter to the Ombudsman’s satisfaction.
During the course of this year, 81 definite systemic issues were identified and resolved to the satisfaction of the Ombudsman.
Systemic issues during this year fell into the following broad categories:
- disclosure in relation to the operation of an account or facility
- inappropriate or misleading disclosure
- computer programming and human errors
- contract and calculation errors
- conduct contravening legal codes, and
- IDR / EDR license obligations.
See some examples of systemic issues from the past year
Systemic issues from the past year