Where to Complain About a Bank, Insurer or Credit Provider in South Africa

Four separate complaint offices became one on 1 March 2024, and most of the advice you will find about complaining to a South African financial institution has not caught up. It still tells you to write to the Banking Ombudsman, or the Credit Ombud, or the Short-Term Insurance Ombudsman. Those offices no longer exist as separate schemes.

That matters more than a change of letterhead. Sending a complaint to the wrong office does not get it forwarded with a helpful note. It gets you a referral, weeks later, against a clock that is already running.

This is the map: who takes what, what each office can order a company to pay you, and the deadlines that quietly close the door.

The four offices that became one

On 1 March 2024 the Banking Ombud, the Credit Ombud, the Long-term Insurance Ombud and the Short-Term Insurance Ombudsman merged into the National Financial Ombud Scheme South Africa, usually shortened to the NFO. It runs as four divisions under one roof: banking, credit, life insurance and non-life insurance.

It is recognised as an industry ombud scheme by the Ombud Council, the body set up under the Financial Sector Regulation Act of 2017 to supervise the whole ombud system. And under Rule 1.4, the NFO "is free of charge for Complainants" — there is no filing fee, and you do not need a lawyer.

So a dispute about a bank charge, a card fraud reversal, a credit agreement, a debt collector's conduct, a wrong listing that dented your credit score, a repudiated car or home claim — all of those now go to one place.

But three other ombuds were not absorbed

This is where the routing goes wrong, because the merger was partial. The Ombud Council oversees four bodies, not one, and the other three still take complaints. Nothing about a company's name or branding tells you which of them applies to your problem, and none of the four will quietly decide a matter that belongs to another office. So it is worth spending a minute on this before you write anything at all:

• The FAIS Ombud handles complaints about advice and intermediary services — a broker, an adviser, someone who sold you a product badly.
• The Pension Funds Adjudicator (OPFA) handles retirement fund administration and related matters.
• The JSE Ombud handles complaints involving JSE members, typically trading and investment services.

The NFO does not merely prefer that you go elsewhere. Rule 4.2.1 excludes from its jurisdiction any complaint falling under the Adjudicator or the FAIS Ombud — unless that office has declined the matter and agreed the NFO should take it, and you agree too.

The practical test is not which company you are angry with. It is what went wrong. A complaint that your insurer wrongly repudiated a claim is an NFO matter. A complaint that the person who sold you the policy misrepresented what it covered is a FAIS matter — even though it is the same policy and often the same brand.

You have to complain to the company first

Every one of these offices is an escalation, not a first port of call.

Under NFO Rule 7.3.1, the NFO must establish whether you have exhausted the company's own internal complaints process. If you have not, it refers the matter back — the rules call this a "premature Complaint" — unless there is good cause to take it anyway.

The FAIS Ombud sets this out as a clock: the company you are complaining about gets six weeks to resolve it with you, and after you receive its final response you then have six months to bring the complaint to the FAIS Ombud.

Two things follow. Get the company's final response in writing, because it starts your clock. And keep the reference number, the dates and who you spoke to, because the strength of a complaint is very often just documentation.

The three-year clock

This is the deadline that catches people, and it is worth knowing before you have a problem rather than after.

Under NFO Rule 4.2.2(e), the NFO may dismiss a complaint where three or more years have passed "from the date the Complainant became aware or should reasonably have been aware that there was cause to complain."

Note what the clock runs from. Not the date of the transaction — the date you knew, or reasonably should have known, that something was wrong. For a disputed debit that started years ago, that distinction can be everything.

There is an escape hatch, and it is narrower than it looks: the bar does not apply where the delay was due to circumstances for which, in an Ombud's opinion, you "could not be blamed." That is a discretion, not a right.

What each office can actually order

Ombud schemes are not unlimited. The NFO's Schedule A sets monetary limits by division, and they are not the same:

The homeowners'/buildings distinction is easy to misread. The higher R10 million ceiling applies to complaints arising from homeowners'/buildings cover; the R5 million cap covers all other types. And life insurance awards, uniquely, are "not subject to any monetary limits."

Above a cap, the door is not automatically shut: the NFO may still consider the matter if the company agrees to the limit being exceeded, or if you agree to limit your claim to the capped amount.

The FAIS Ombud works to a separate figure. Its maximum was raised from R800,000 — where it had sat since 2004 — to R3.5 million by the Ombud Council Rules for the Ombud for Financial Services Providers, 2024, which came into operation on 1 July 2024. Two qualifications that get dropped in most summaries: the new limit is not retrospective and applies only to complaints received on or after that date, and the R3.5 million excludes any costs and interest the Ombud may award.

The R50,000 that has nothing to do with your loss

Separately from any award for the money you actually lost, the NFO can compensate you for the aggravation.

Rule 9.4.1(g) lets an Ombud award compensation for "material inconvenience or distress" or for financial loss caused by "error, omission, or maladministration (including manifestly unacceptable or incompetent service)". Schedule A caps this at R50,000 across all complaint types — and states that the NFO may make such an award "in addition to or regardless of whether any other award" it makes.

Read that last part again. It is payable even where you recover nothing else. If a bank's incompetence cost you three months of your life and no rand figure captures it, that is the provision to point at.

There is a second, smaller lever in the banking division: where a bank "unnecessarily delays the proceedings of the NFO or fails to respond to a request from the NFO", the NFO may award up to R10,000 to the complainant. Stonewalling has a price.

Who is allowed to complain

For banking and non-bank credit complaints, Schedule A limits the NFO to complaints by a natural person, or by a small business — a sole proprietor or trader, company, partnership or trust — with a turnover in its last financial year of less than R10 million.

The non-life insurance paragraph does not impose that turnover test. It says instead that the same monetary limits apply to personal lines and commercial lines complaints. If you are a business with an insurance dispute, do not assume you are excluded because you would be on the credit side.

What they will not touch

Some complaints are outside the system no matter how well you argue them. The NFO may dismiss a complaint where:

• you have already instituted legal proceedings against the company and not withdrawn them;
• the matter has already been through mediation, conciliation or arbitration that reached an outcome — unless the company did not act in good faith;
• it has already been decided by the NFO or a predecessor scheme, absent new evidence likely to change the result;
• it "can more appropriately be dealt with by a court of law"; or
• it is "predominantly about investment performance or the reasonable... judgment" of the company.

That investment-performance carve-out disappoints a lot of people. Losing money on a product is not, by itself, a complaint. The exceptions are narrow: where performance was guaranteed expressly or implicitly, or where the performance or commercial judgment was so deficient as to raise a prima facie presumption of misrepresentation, negligence or maladministration.

If the company is not a participant of the NFO, or is not licensed where the NFO thinks it should be, the rules require the complaint to be referred to the FSCA or the National Credit Regulator instead — and the NFO must tell you it has done so.

A ruling binds them, not you

This is the most useful asymmetry in the rules and almost nobody explains it.

If the complaint is not resolved, the NFO issues a Recommendation. If a party rejects it, an Ombud reconsiders and issues a Ruling. Under Rule 9.3.5, that Ruling is final and binding on the parties if the complainant accepts it.

And if you do not accept it, Rule 9.3.6 says you are "not bound thereby". You may apply for leave to appeal, or simply pursue the matter in another forum. Rule 12 preserves that right outright: you may litigate or use an alternative forum at any time, at which point the NFO stops considering the complaint.

In plain terms: you are being offered a free decision you can decline. The company does not have the same freedom. That is a strong reason to use the process even when you think your case is worth more than an ombud will award — though once you have issued summons, Rule 4.2.2(a) lets the NFO drop the matter, so the order in which you do things matters.

Two deadlines to diarise. You have 30 days to object to a decision that your complaint falls outside jurisdiction, and 30 days to object to a dismissal made without considering the merits. Applications for leave to appeal a Ruling also run on 30 days, to an Appeal Tribunal of three members who must be retired High Court, Appeal Court or Constitutional Court judges, or Senior Counsel — extendable only where the Tribunal condones the delay on good cause.

Where this system does not reach

Not every money complaint is a financial-sector complaint.

Tax is its own world: a dispute with SARS over an assessment or penalty follows the objection and appeal route, and there is a separate Tax Ombud for service and administrative complaints. That is a different process with different deadlines — start here instead.

Retirement fund complaints go to the Pension Funds Adjudicator, not the NFO, under the same Rule 4.2.1 exclusion. Complaints about JSE members go to the JSE Ombud. The Ombud Council can also designate a scheme to handle complaints that fall through the gaps between existing jurisdictions.

And some things are not complaints at all but decisions you can make yourself — moving your money, comparing what other banks charge, or fixing an error at source. A wrong entry on your credit record is often faster to correct with the bureau directly than through any ombud: read your credit report properly and check your score for free before you escalate anything.

If the underlying problem is that the debt is genuinely unaffordable rather than wrongly calculated, an ombud cannot fix that either — debt review is a different remedy with different consequences. And if money is already being deducted from your salary under a court order, that process has its own rules.

The short version

Complain to the company first and get the refusal in writing. Work out whether your problem is about a product (NFO), advice (FAIS Ombud), a retirement fund (Adjudicator) or a JSE member (JSE Ombud). Do it well inside three years of the day you knew something was wrong. Ask for the inconvenience award as well as your loss. And remember that the ruling only binds you if you accept it.

For more on managing what you hold and what it costs you, see our money guides.

Frequently asked questions

Does the National Financial Ombud cost anything? No. Rule 1.4 states that the NFO "is free of charge for Complainants", and you are not obliged to use it — you may go to court or another forum instead.

I was told to contact the Credit Ombud. Does that office still exist? Not as a separate scheme. The Credit Ombud, the Banking Ombud, the Long-term Insurance Ombud and the Short-Term Insurance Ombudsman all merged into the NFO on 1 March 2024, which now runs them as four divisions.

How long do I have to complain? The NFO may dismiss a complaint once three or more years have passed since you became aware, or reasonably should have become aware, that there was cause to complain — unless the delay was due to circumstances you cannot be blamed for. The FAIS Ombud works differently: six weeks for the provider to resolve it, then six months from its final response.

What is the most the ombud can award me? It depends on the division: R5 million for banking, bank credit and non-bank credit; R5 million for most non-life insurance but R10 million for homeowners'/buildings cover; and no monetary limit at all for life insurance. The FAIS Ombud's separate maximum is R3.5 million.

Can I get anything for the stress and wasted time? Yes, up to R50,000, for material inconvenience or distress or for loss caused by error, omission or maladministration. It can be awarded in addition to — or regardless of — any other award.

Can my business complain, or only individuals? For banking and non-bank credit, a small business qualifies if its turnover in the last financial year was under R10 million. The non-life insurance rules do not impose that turnover test and apply the same limits to personal and commercial lines.

My investment lost money. Is that a complaint? Usually not. Complaints predominantly about investment performance or commercial judgment can be dismissed, unless performance was guaranteed, or was so deficient as to suggest misrepresentation, negligence or maladministration.

Do I have to accept the ombud's decision? No. A Ruling is binding on the parties only if you accept it. If you do not, you are not bound and may apply for leave to appeal within 30 days or take the matter to another forum.

What if I have already sued the company? The NFO may dismiss a complaint where you have instituted legal proceedings and not withdrawn them. If you intend to use the ombud, use it before issuing summons.