Mr. William Prasifka:

There were about 3,000 complaints upheld in the second half of the year. The Senator is right that the figures speak for themselves. In the most recent period we did not uphold 78% of the complaints made. Why is that figure so high? A lot of complaints are driven by anger and frustration. As I said, there has been a paradigm shift in the country. It used to be the case that a bank manager was someone who garnered a combination of respect and awe from the local community such that people were reluctant to make complaints. We are now in an entirely different situation. A lot of people are suffering from financial distress, which drives a lot of complaints. We have seen some institutions taken our methodologies on board such that they know which complaints to settle and which to allow go forward. Let me outline an important part of the service provided by my office. When someone makes a complaint, he or she may know little about the underlying situation, other than he or she does not like the outcome and insurance was not paid. We must explain everything to him or her such, including the policy, what he or she was told and what his or her reasonable expectations were. This is an important service to provide. Complaints are not going to change significantly until the economy changes, but we can lay the groundwork now to try to restore confidence in the sector.