The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has received more than 66,000 disputes involving insurance and other financial services providers in its first 11 months of operations.

AFCA started in November last year as the financial services dispute resolution one-stop shop, replacing the Financial Ombudsman Service, Credit and Investments Ombudsman and the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal.

CEO and Chief Ombudsman David Locke says the numbers represent a 36% rise from the combined cases handled by AFCA’s predecessors.

“By the time we finish this month, we will have received about 72,000 complaints in our first year of operation,” Mr Locke told the National Insurance Brokers Association convention last week.

“What that means is every day 650 people phone us and every day 200 people lodge a new complaint with us.”

General insurance accounts for about 23% of overall cases, second behind credit (44%).