While Financial Services Complaints Limited has had a record-breaking year for financial services disputes, disputes involving financial advisers were markedly down from a year earlier and on par with the 2023/24 year.
In looking at disputes by service type in the 2025-26 reporting year, the financial ombudsman service points to 68 disputes about financial advisers, compared with 83 the previous year and 66 in the 2023-24 year.
Disputes about insurers totalled 64, up just one from the previous year although a jump from 46 in the 2023-24 year.
In total, FSCL investigated 532 disputes in the 2025-26 reporting year, which it says is the highest number in its history, and a 49% increase on the year before.
The service notes that disputes arise when complaints can’t be resolved directly between consumers and their financial service provider and require an independent investigation.
“The disputes derived from 1,596 complaints received by FSCL during the year beginning 1 July 2025.”
It says the sharpest increase in 15 years reflects that, for many consumers, economic conditions remain very challenging, even as headline indicators show signs of improvement.
“Another driver is an increasing number of consumers using AI to make their complaint.”
Financial Ombudsman Susan Taylor says that “…the surge in disputes shows the real-world impact of ongoing financial stress for some New Zealanders.” Some people are still facing challenges with debt, and others are seeking relief through KiwiSaver significant hardship withdrawals.
“More people are turning to us when they experience hardship or service issues and feel they have limited options. Our job is to listen to both sides and help reach a fair and practical solution.”
FSCL notes the areas seeing significant increases are non-bank lenders, including credit card providers (up 65%); a tripling of transactional service provider disputes, involving disputes about money transfer systems and foreign exchange; and corporate trustee companies.
…there’s still room to improve awareness that independent help is available for free…
Disputes about fund managers jumped from 10 cases last year to 47 this year.
“This was largely driven by consumers who faced issues when applying to withdraw KiwiSaver funds due to significant hardship. Many of these people were already in vulnerable circumstances. Some struggled to understand the evidence required to make a withdrawal, experienced delays, or felt decisions about their hardship applications were not clearly explained,” Taylor says.
Transactional service provider disputes commonly involved service issues, people entering incorrect account numbers, or people becoming victims of scams and asking for help to recover funds.
She encourages providers to be proactive in educating consumers about scam risks and to be clear about what support they offer when things go wrong.
She says that while dispute numbers have grown “…there’s still room to improve awareness that independent help is available, for free, if a consumer cannot resolve a problem with their financial service provider.”