Complaints relating to travel insurance fell 22% in the year to June as international and state border rules limited movement and Australians stayed at home instead of holidaying or conducting business trips.

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) says overall complaints against financial services companies were down 12% to 70,510 complaints in the year to June 30.

While 165 complaints related to insurance cover for business interruption associated with COVID-19 were recorded, AFCA expects more complaints in the coming year once the second of two test cases brought by the insurance industry is resolved.

Complaints about sales of funeral insurance in Indigenous communities continued “to be troubling” in 2020-21, with one provider accounting for 98% of funeral insurance-related complaints.

“There’s a pattern of poor conduct in regional and remote communities that’s concerning,” AFCA Chief Ombudsman David Locke said.

Complaints involving financial difficulty were down nearly 40% as support measures and a steadying economy provided relief.

“That’s a great outcome; however, it’s too early to say we’re out of the woods yet,” Mr Locke said.

“It may be some months before we know the full impact of the end of government emergency support and assistance from financial firms such as deferred loan repayments, and of course we are still living with COVID-19.”

There were 8303 COVID-related complaints in the year – an average of 692 a month which was down sharply from 1253 a month after the pandemic was declared the previous year.

The most complained about product was credit cards, accounting for 14%, followed by home loans at 9% and personal transaction accounts at 8%.

AFCA is concerned about unauthorised transactions, which accounted for 11% of credit card complaints, 29% of personal transaction account complaints and 28% of electronic banking complaints.

“People transacting online more during COVID will have contributed,” Mr Locke said. “Scams, which have accelerated during the pandemic, are also leading to growing complaints about transactions.”

Superannuation complaints fell 31% after a jump the prior year when the government allowed the early release of super at the start of COVID.

AFCA says it secured more than $240 million in compensation and refunds, as well as fee waivers, debt forgiveness and apologies. Investigations into a range of systemic issues resulted in remediation payments to consumers totalling nearly $32 million in the past financial year.

The independent government-owned complaints body says it has secured more than $610 million in compensation and refunds, and more than $220 million in remediation payments, since starting operation in November 2018.