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How to make a complaint
to the FSPO

How to make a complaint to your financial service provider

Here are the steps to follow before you make a complaint to the FSPO:

  1. Speak or write to the person you usually deal with, or ask for the complaints manager to make a complaint. Make it very clear that you are making a complaint. Explain your complaint and suggest how your provider can resolve the issue.

    2. Provide detailed information, including:

    • Relevant dates, places and times
    • Details of any phone conversations and meetings, for example, who was involved, when they took place and what was said
    • Copies of relevant documents, such as contracts, statements, emails, letters, invoices and receipts.

  2. The provider should deal with your complaint through its complaint handling process. The provider may take up to 40 working days to deal with your complaint.

    3. When you complain to your provider, be persistent. If nothing happens, contact your provider to check on the progress of your complaint.

    Your provider should fully investigate your complaint in accordance with its Internal Dispute Resolution process (IDR process). At the end of the IDR process, the provider will issue a final response letter.

Final Response Letter

A final response should set out what your provider has done to investigate your complaint through its complaint handling process. The letter should advise you to contact the FSPO as your next step, if you remain unsatisfied.

If you have difficulty getting a final response letter from your provider and 40 working days have passed since you made your complaint, or if your provider is not engaging with you, please let us know and we will follow up on the complaint for you.

The Ombudsman may, in some limited circumstances, investigate a complaint against a financial service provider, before the IDR process is complete. This may happen if the provider has failed to complete the IDR process so as to allow a complaint to be made within the time limits, as set out in the FSPO Act or where the Ombudsman determines that a complaint is of such importance that it warrants waiving the IDR procedure.