A significant number of consumers in South Africa are expressing their dissatisfaction with the manner in which their complaints are handled by Category I financial service providers (FSPs), retirement funds, and retirement fund administrators.

This was revealed by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) Complaints Management Industry Review Report 2025 released on Monday.

The FSCA surveyed 655 consumers and indicating that 67% of respondents were dissatisfied with the complaints processes offered by the financial institutions, while 63% of respondents were dissatisfied with the resolution of their complaints.

The report was done in two phases, where it also surveyed over 1000 financial service providers in the first phase between 2022 and 2023.

The first phase report revealed that the majority of the reviewed financial institutions display commitment to developing and maintaining complaints management processes. It further revealed that while broad commitments are made, not all financial institutions have clearly documented complaints management processes and procedures in detail.

Koko Kubelo, Senior Manager at FSCA, said that Phase 2 of the review was conducted through an online consumer engagement survey.

“The survey gauged consumers’ awareness of complaint handling processes offered by licensed financial institutions and sheds light on consumers’ actual experiences in this regard,” Kubelo said.

“Consumers needed to be 18 years or older and have lodged a complaint with a Category I FSP, retirement fund, or retirement fund administrator between 2021 and 2023.”

Kubelo added that the consumer survey revealed that a small proportion of financial consumers (8%) lodged complaints in the period 2021–2023 and used a myriad of channels and platforms to lodge complaints.

“From a consumer perspective, the survey showed gaps in the complaints handling processes. Consumers feel that they do not receive adequate feedback on complaints lodged and that sometimes institutions take long to resolve complaints.”

Kubelo said that most of these complaints were lodged with Category I FSPs and retirement funds (31% each), while only 9% of complaints were lodged with retirement fund administrators.

“67% of respondents were dissatisfied with the complaints processes offered by the financial institutions. 63% of respondents were dissatisfied with the resolution of their complaints. 55% of respondents disagreed with the statement that “it was easy to get information on how to lodge a complaint.”

Kubelo added that 31% of consumers said financial institutions took between a week and a month to resolve their complaints. “65% of respondents reported not being kept informed of the status of their complaints and not receiving explanations for delays.”

Kubelo said that consumers were concerned about complaint handling information.

“Consumer responses indicated that financial institutions are not seen to be doing enough to provide consumers with complaints handling information or to help them understand how to navigate procedures for initiating and escalating complaints. The channels mostly used by financial consumers to lodge complaints are emails/electronic formats, such as online forms on websites (50%), and telephonic engagements (24%).”

Kubelo added that the findings in the first phase indicated that there was a lack of uniformity in complaints recording and reporting across the assessed financial industries. Not all entities have documented processes and procedures. Financial institutions do not proactively solicit feedback from consumers. Some financial institutions’ documented complaints management policies and procedures lack detail.

Kubelo said that financial institutions across all sampled industries showed commitment to establishing and maintaining appropriate complaint management processes.

Kubelo added that financial institutions should ideally establish, maintain, and operate an adequate and effective complaints management framework proportionate to their business complexity and size.

Kubelo said that financial institutions should increase efforts to document and make the timelines for resolving complaints accessible. “The need to establish clear service level agreements (SLAs) with third-party providers and provide standard resolution timelines to customers to prevent unreasonable delays in resolving complaints and deviations from agreed timelines."

Kubelo further added that they need to employ systems to automate and provide regular, clear, and timely updates to consumers regarding the status of their complaints, causes of delays, and possible escalation steps.

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Consumer dissatisfaction with financial service providers revealed in FSCA report