AFCA to review complaints against Union Standard International Group
The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has provided a beam of hope to the victims of Union Standard International Group Pty Ltd, also known as USGFX.
As FX News Group has reported, earlier in June the Parliament of Australia passed legislation to establish the Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR). The introduction of a CSLR is an important step forward in consumer protection in Australia, and one that AFCA has long supported.
AFCA will now review complaints against insolvent financial firms and other complaints that have been on pause awaiting the establishment of a CSLR.
The Authority will need to consider a range of questions for each complaint, including whether an open complaint is within its jurisdiction (if this has not been determined already), and whether a complaint broadly falls within the scope of the CSLR, as outlined in the legislation.
AFCA will contact you after reviewing your paused complaint to confirm whether it falls within the broad scope of the CSLR. There is no need to do anything in the meantime. You do not need to contact AFCA.
There are nearly 5,000 complaints currently on pause at AFCA, so this work will take some time to complete.
ASIC advised in its statement in September 2020 that it has cancelled USG’s financial services licence on 14 September 2020 under section 915B of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Act).
More information from AFCA on this matter can be found on its website.