News

The Indian Rupee is a closed currency which means that travellers cannot bring Rupees into or out of India. As a result of this, the ADF is unable to purchase Indian Rupees for you to take with you when you are travelling to India, although you can take AUD and other currencies with you. Please note you may be required to declare the cash you are carrying when entering India, refer to the Customs Declaration form for further information.

The acceptance of credit and debit cards in India has significantly increased over the past 3 – 5 years so a large number of purchases can now be made without cash. However, if you do require cash, there are a number of different ways you can purchase Rupees when you arrive in India. These include exchanging AUD or other currency at a bank, at an approved foreign exchange provider and withdrawing Rupees at an ATM. It is recommended that whilst travelling you have multiple access methods to your funds including debit cards, credit cards, cash and/or travel cards, please ensure you notify the ADF if you will be using your Corporate card whilst in India.

The ADF strongly recommends visiting smartraveller.gov.au whenever you are planning an overseas trip for a listing of other countries which have a closed currency and additional key travel advisory information.

If you use the CBA Quick Cash bags to deposit cash or cheques into your ADF account, please ensure that you contact the ADF when you need to replenish your bag stock.

If you request the bags from the CBA branch, the branch are required to charge you a fee per bag. If you order your bags through the ADF, there is no fee applied as a result of the National Pricing arrangement the ADF has with the Commonwealth Bank.

If you don’t currently use Quick Cash bags and would like some information on the benefits of using these, please contact the ADF.

Credit card fraud and scams are becoming increasingly common in this digital age. With ‘card-not-present’ fraud accounting for 80% of all Australian card fraud, it’s a good idea to make sure you know what to do should something go wrong.

ADF Recommendations

We recommend that all card customers keep a close track of your card activity and keep all records of payments made to ensure you are always across any unexpected changes.

The ADF’s Corporate Card partner, CBA, has advanced security and fraud detection systems in place that pick up any abnormal transactions or spend patterns. If they notice something unusual on your card you may receive a phone call from one of their fraud team, or even an automated telephone/SMS alert. This may result in a temporary block on your card while they are in the process of contacting you for verification.

What should you do if you suspect you have been a victim of credit card fraud

If you notice a purchase on your statement that you didn’t make, or a payment you didn’t authorise, the first thing to do is report it immediately. You can report this to the ADF or the CBA, who will place a stop on your card and the claim process commenced so that your funds can be reimbursed.*

Here are some contact details to remember:

• If you suspect fraud or have a dispute on your card please notify us immediately on 07 3324 3777.
• If outside working hours, call the CBA immediately on 13 22 21 (24/7) or visit any branch.
• If you are overseas and have an urgent card security issue, make a reverse-charges phone call to +61 2 9999 3283.

* You are 100% covered against fraudulent transactions if you comply with the Conditions of Use. There is also a time frame of 90 days, outside of which the CBA may not be able to request a refund from the merchant.

Tell your colleagues

One of the best ways of minimising the impact of scammers is to talk about it, so everyone knows what to do should it also happen to them.

Always feel free to contact the ADF for any queries with your CBA corporate card.

If you’re interested in viewing your transactions any time over the internet please contact us to discuss.

For further information also see our Corporate Cards FAQs area here.

In late 2017, the New Payments Platform (NPP) will launch in Australia with a number of financial institutions taking part. The NPP is a payments platform that has been developed by the payments industry governing body (APCA) and financial institutions to meet the evolving needs of our 24/7 digital economy. The NPP will enable real-time settlement of payments and will also simplify payments through an Addressing service, removing the need to remember BSB and Account information.

The ADF is taking a keen interest in the development and progress of the New Payments Platform and we have received detailed briefings from the Commonwealth Bank (CBA), our banking services partner, on their involvement with the NPP. Due to the structure of our banking services and the first release of the NPP being geared towards one off peer to peer payments, the ADF will not be joining up to the NPP when it initially launches. All payment methods that are currently used by our clients will continue unhindered and processing timeframes will not be impacted.

The ADF will continue to pro-actively discuss the NPP with CBA and monitor the progress of the platform as well as the second and third releases which may be beneficial for our clients.

If you have any questions regarding the NPP and the progress the ADF is making, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

We are pleased to announce that ADF Online has just been updated with a number of optimisations and improvements focused on the usability of the site. For more information you can view the release notes including the details of these changes.

This update has been carefully tested with all major web browsers. Please contact the ADF to let us know if you experience any issues with the new version of ADF Online.

We welcome your feedback on these changes, which can be submitted via the link shown after logging out of ADF Online.

As part of our program of continuous improvement, a further upgrade to ADF Online will follow later this year.

The ADF wishes to advise all customers to beware of an invoice email scam that is currently targeting Queensland businesses.

This scam involves scammers pretending to be legitimate suppliers advising changes to payment arrangements or bank account details held on file. The scammer will send an email which is disguised to appear almost identical to the legitimate suppliers’ email advising updated account information and potentially requesting payment.

More details on this scam including things to look out for and ways to protect yourself from being a victim of this scam can be found at https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/news/invoice-email-scam-now-targeting-australian-businesses

If you are concerned that you may have been a victim of this scam, please contact the ADF immediately.

The ADF has recently completed a business process re-engineering project with the CBA with regard to payments to ADF customer accounts.

Previously, the CBA would hold all transactions made to ADF customers each day, delivering to the ADF in one large batch overnight. The ADF would process these payments the next morning which meant that customers were receiving transactions up to a full day after they were received by the CBA.

From now on, the CBA will deliver customer transactions to the ADF several times throughout the day. The ADF will process them as they are received.

The benefits for ADF customers include:

• Positive impact on liquidity and cash flow;
• Merchant settlements processed the next day; and
• Easier reconciliations as a number of transactions will no longer have both an effective date and posted date, they will simply have a posted date.

The ADF is always looking for ways to improve our customers experience and would value any feedback you have on this improvement or other improvements you would like to see.

During a Qkr training session last year, the ADF and MasterCard received a suggestion from some schools for an online support forum where schools could share information about Qkr. In response we are pleased to announce the availability of a new Qkr Forum and invite Archdiocesan Development Fund customers to take part in the initial launch.

The address of the Qkr Forum is https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/qkrforum

To assist users getting started, we have added a guide entitled “Qkr Forum – Getting Started Guide” in the Resources and Guides section of our Documents and Forms page.

In December each year, all Archdiocesan agencies that are located in the St Stephen’s Cathedral precinct compete against each other to see who has the best Christmas decorations and the winner is awarded the Precinct Cup. It is a very competitive event with all agencies vying for the coveted trophy.

The judging criteria is always very strict with Theme, Message and Content making up 70% and Viewer Appeal making up the remaining 30%. The official judging is undertaken by Bishop Joe and his able assistant Vince Crisci.

The ADF decided on a Winter Wonderland theme for this year’s entry, with special focus being given to the First Christmas and the true Christmas message. A number of staff were tasked with the making of decorations and everyone contributed either helping to create or putting up the decorations under the supervision of Robyn Bowen. Robyn, who is usually very mild mannered, became quite focused on this project with all the staff put to work following her directions and ever-changing rearrangement of the display.

The judges attended the ADF first on judging day. They were walked through the display and were treated to homemade Dutch biscuits and other goodies. However, it was a nervous wait whilst they visited all other participants and until the announcement was finally made.

Later that afternoon, it was announced that the ADF was the winner! We are now in possession of the Precinct Cup Trophy until the end of 2017.

The ADF would like to thank all of our customers who have given us very positive feedback. It was a great team effort and the bonus being that finally after ten long years the ADF was successful in this precinct challenge.

On December 18 2016, Kevin Ross, the Chairman of the Archdiocesan Development Fund Board, received a papal honour in recognition of his professional and volunteer work in the Brisbane Archdiocese.

Mr Ross, who was appointed to the ADF Board in April 2004 and elected Chairman in September 2005 was invested in the ancient Pontifical Equestrian Order of St Gregory the Great and is now able to call himself a Knight of the Order of St Gregory.

The honour was still a shock to the married father of five who has been a member of the St John’s Wood The Gap Parish for 40 years.

“It’s blown me away,” Mr Ross said. “I’m sure other people would have told you the same thing, you do not feel worthy of such an honour and there’s so many other people that I think work much harder for the Church in carrying out the Gospel message than I do, right at the forefront of ministry and mission.
I hope to be seen that I’m but an example of what others are doing, just one, not the standout in any shape or form.”

Mr Ross has also participated on various committees over the past 24 years including appointments to Centacare, Brisbane Catholic Education, Archdiocesan Finance Council and work with Catholic health agencies.

The Board and Staff of the ADF would like to congratulate Mr Ross on his knighthood and thank him for is continued contribution to the ADF Board and the Brisbane Archdiocese.