Review and Analysis of Financial Difficulty Disputes at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority

Overview

Under the National Credit Code, consumers who are unable to meet payments on their consumer credit contract have a statutory right to give a hardship notice to their credit provider. On receipt of the notice, the credit provider must give genuine consideration to the request and provide a response within the prescribed time (usually 21 days, but there are some exceptions). Types of assistance that can be offered might include temporary moratorium on repayments; reductions in payment amounts; extending the term of the loan or other assistance. However, credit providers have discretion as to whether or not they provide assistance, and the terms of any assistance. The Banking Code also provides commitments in relation to assisting customers in financial difficulty.

There is limited data on the outcomes of hardship applications, as they are negotiated between individual customers and their credit providers. However, customers who are dissatisfied with their credit provider’s response can bring a financial difficulty complaint to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. Although most disputes within AFCA are resolved by negotiation or conciliation, some disputes are resolved through a written determination by an Ombudsman or Panel.

This project will examine and analyse a sample of recent AFCA determinations to identify approaches and trends in AFCA’s decision making and the initial decisions by credit providers to better understand how the hardship protections are operating in practice.

Research engagement

The student will engage with collection and analysis of AFCA determinations, statistics and other information on financial difficulty assistance disputes, as well as more recent literature on the role of AFCA in financial difficulty disputes.

Research activities

The student will search the AFCA Datacube to identify relevant determinations and other information on the use and outcomes of the financial difficulty provisions, and analyse the documents to find common themes and approaches.

The student will be working with Dr Nicola Howell, School of Law.

Research skills

Document analysis, literature review, and academic writing.

Outcomes

Draft report and/or journal article that explores AFCA statistics and determinations on financial difficulty in consumer credit disputes, and common approaches and themes.

Skills and experience

An understanding of consumer credit regulation would be helpful, but is not essential.

Start date

2 November, 2026

End date

19 February, 2027

Location

QUT Gardens Point campus

Keywords

• consumer credit
• financial difficulty
• financial hardship
• National Credit Code
• Australian Financial Complaints Authority
• alternative dispute resolution
• external dispute resolution

Contact

Nicola Howell

07 3138 2006

nicola.howell@qut.edu.au