Category: Latest News

We’re excited to announce that starting April 5th, 2024, we’re boosting our interest rates for our 4-month Term Deposits* by 0.25 p.a.! This means more returns on your money when you choose to save with us for a little longer.

Take a look at our updated rates here.

*Terms and conditions apply and are available here.

We’ve got some exciting news to share! Starting March 28th 2024, we’re lowering the interest rates on our two and three-year fixed rates for our First Home Loan product*.

New members may be eligible for our two-year fixed rate of 5.79% p.a. with a comparison rate of 5.91% p.a. or our three-year fixed rate of 5.59% p.a. with a comparison rate of 5.85% p.a.*

Take a look at our updated rates here. Don’t miss out on these incredible rates—seize your dream home opportunity with us today! Be sure to review our First Home Loan eligibility criteria here.*

*Fees and charges and lending  criteria apply. Rates are subject to change at any time.

*The First Home Loan is only available for applicants that qualify for the Housing Australia. Interest Only is only applicable for construction purposes.

*The comparison rate is based on a loan of $150,000 over a 25 year term. WARNING: This comparison rate is true only for the examples given and may not include all fees and charges. Different terms, fees or other loan amounts might result in a different comparison rate

Buying your first home? 

We’ve got some exciting news to share! Starting March 21st, 2024, we’re making it even easier for you to achieve homeownership by lowering the interest rates on our First Home Loan.*

For new eligible customers, we’re rolling out a fantastic low variable rate of 5.84% p.a. and a comparison rate of 5.92% p.a.*! And if you prefer the certainty of a fixed rate, no worries—we’ve also dropped our rates for the First Home Loan 2 YR and 3YR fixed rate options!

Take a look at our updated rates here. Don’t miss out on these incredible rates—seize your dream home opportunity with us today! Be sure to review our First Home Loan eligibility criteria here.

*Fees and charges and lending  criteria apply. Rates are subject to change at any time.

*The First Home Loan is only available for applicants that qualify for the Housing Australia. Interest Only is only applicable for construction purposes.

*The comparison rate is based on a loan of $150,000 over a 25 year term. WARNING: This comparison rate is true only for the examples given and may not include all fees and charges. Different terms, fees or other loan amounts might result in a different comparison rate.

Police Bank has been on a necessary journey of renewal. While the first phase was to stabilise and then improve the culture, financial performance, and risk management practices of the bank, it also included planning for the transformation of the bank’s technology systems and offerings.
The technological transformation remains critical because even though banking is a human business, our members are increasingly choosing contactless or digital channels.

Indeed, of the almost three million transactions we do each month, between half and two-thirds are undertaken using the bank’s payments tools. Another chunk of the bank’s transactions are via the mobile app, which does around 15% of the bank’s total volume. Internet banking is responsible for around 3 to 5% of transactions, while around 0.07% of transactions are undertaken in branch.

Overall, we are becoming a modern digital bank – because that’s how our members want to manage their money.
Critically, the channel choice most of our members have used for years is our app. Members told us we needed to get better at our technology if we are going to remain competitive – if we are going to be sustainable in the years ahead and continue to contribute to our community, to help members and their families get into a home or save for the future – we had to rebuild all our technology.

While the primary focus has been on the core banking system and our loan and deposit systems, we also had to update our mobile banking app due to the provider withdrawing the platform from the market.
If we could have dictated the timeline, we would have changed over the mobile banking app in around 12 months when we changed our core banking system. But we had no choice other than to launch it in September.
As a purpose-driven organisation driving long-term communal goals for our members, we must work with partners who provide capability that Border Bank otherwise doesn’t have.

We do that across so many parts of the bank, and it usually works, but when it came to the mobile banking app we could not seamlessly deliver with our partner – what was released didn’t match either the promise of what we had planned, or the performance in user-acceptance testing.
That has been frustrating and disappointing. At the heart of our transformation are our members and our team, and as a bank we let both you and our team down.

We have worked hard to fix the bugs over the past eight weeks and while there is a little more work to do, the vast majority of issues are now resolved.
Over the next 12 months, the bank’s modernisation will continue.
That will provide us the opportunity to offer better lending and higher deposit rates and will help Border Bank continue to serve our members the way they deserve, and in keeping with the way you, our members, serve our community.

With most scams involving a form of impersonation, Scamwatch is warning Australians and are urging you take additional precautions towards who you’re dealing with this November.

As the national and personal cost of scams continues to skyrocket across the country, this year’s Scams Awareness Week is drawing attention to one of the most common forms of financial fraud: impersonation scams.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), which runs Scamwatch and hosts the annual awareness campaign, said roughly four-in-five scams involves some form of impersonation.

As members of law enforcement, we know many of our customers have seen the devastating effects of these scams, which can include financial ruin and humiliation.

In many cases, it may be a fraudster calling, emailing or messaging, claiming to be from a legitimate agency – such as a bank, private business or government agency. Sometimes the scam messages mimic the legitimate communications of the firm they’re purporting to be from.

Impersonation scammers may also peg their scams to real events or company changes to appear more authentic. For example, the streaming platform Netflix recently tried to crack down on password sharing and enabled users to create a collection of devices using the same account, known as a ‘Netflix household’. A scam message then circulated encouraging recipients to click a link embedded in a text message to update their Netflix household. However, the link wasn’t legitimate and was instead designed to collect private information from those who clicked it.

How to spot and avoid an impersonation scam

While impersonation scams are rife, Scamwatch states there are several signs that can help you spot them. They include:

• Communications with a sense of urgency or threats; for example, ‘A payment is overdue and must be made now to avoid further action.’
• Links embedded in messages that look different to the business or agency’s website. To be safe, never click the links in messages.
• If you receive a suspicious message or call, contact the ‘sender’ through another channel, such as their website or public phone line, to confirm their identity. 
• Block and report scams, where possible, to protect others.

Ways to get involved

Scamwatch is encouraging law-enforcement officials to get involved this Scams Awareness Week by sharing messages from its social media campaign, and digital assets from its website.

Scams Awareness Week runs November 27 through December 1. For more information, visit scamwatch.gov.au/

“Spotlight articles are prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs and are published for information purposes only. You should consider the appropriateness of any content to your circumstances. Visit Important documents to access Terms and Conditions and the Financial Services Guide which are currently available electronically for products of Police Bank Limited. Target Market Determinations are available here. Loan applications are subject to lending criteria and credit approval. Interest rates are subject to change. Fees and charges may apply.”

The way most people pay for goods and services and do their banking has evolved radically over the past decade and the pace of change has only accelerated in the wake of the COVID pandemic. Here we look at some of the key banking trends and what they might mean for you.

Rapid changes have occurred in the banking sector over the last decade, driven by technological innovations and evolving customer expectations.

The pace of change accelerated during the COVID pandemic when the need to avoid contact boosted the use of online banking and digital payments.

Here we explore some of the major trends occurring in the banking sector today:

We are using less cash

For many Australians, using cash is now a rare event, as society continues to shift toward digital payments.  According to a report by the Australian Banking Association (ABA), at the end of 2022, cash only accounted for 13 per cent of consumer payments in Australia. In 2007, that figure was 70 per cent.

Angel Zhong, Associate Professor of Finance at RMIT University, said the move to a cashless society is no longer just a possibility: “This transition to a cashless economy is well underway. It started prior to the pandemic due to technological innovations and advancements but then COVD accelerated this trend because during COVID a lot of stores accepted contactless payments.”

In a global trend, cash will be defunct in Sweden by 2024, replaced by electronic payments and central bank digital currency (CBDC).

Zhong estimates that Australia will be a cashless society by 2030.

But that doesn’t mean cash will disappear entirely.

We have only to look to the large-scale Optus outage in November, which prevented millions of Australians from using digital payments, for an example of the way cash can be useful in a crisis.

“Moving to a cashless society doesn’t mean that there’s no bank notes at all,” said Zhong. “No one should be panicking that your banknotes will no longer carry value. There is always a place for cash, but the majority will be making payments with digital wallets.”

Rise of digital payments

The convenience, speed and security of digital transactions has proven irresistible and led to digital payments eclipsing traditional methods.

According to the ABA, mobile wallet transactions surged from $746 million in 2018 to more than $93 billion in 2022, while the number of cards registered to mobile wallets rose from just over 2 million to 15.3 million over the same period.

Other digital payment options such as PayID and Paypal are also gaining traction.

Cheques are declining

As the range of available payment options increases, the use of cheques has plummeted.

The Australian Government plans to phase out cheques as it seeks to modernise Australia’s payments infrastructure, with the country’s cheque system scheduled to wind down no later than 2030. Government usage cheques will be phased out by 2028.

As cheques become lesson common, bank customers are using alternative payment methods such as direct debit, BPAY, PayID, and digital card payments.

We are mostly banking online

Australian bank customers have overwhelmingly shifted to digital when it comes to doing their banking. The majority (98.9%) of transactions are now handled through online channels and apps, according to the ABA.

In person branch transactions are experiencing a rapid decline, falling by 46% from FY19 to FY22, as most transactions can be conveniently done online or by phone.

Customers benefits from online banking that can be done anywhere and anytime, and when they do come to a branch, it’s usually for more complex, non-transactional needs.

Cyber security is a high priority

Cyber-attacks are increasing in frequency and impact as criminals continuously adopt new ways to compromise systems and information.

More than two in 10 businesses experienced a cyber security attack during the 2021-22 financial year, compared to almost one in 10 in 2019-20.

Faced with rapidly evolving hacking methods, banks are beginning to embrace advanced technologies such as analytics and artificial intelligence to detect threats effectively.

Regtech and the revolution of regulation

Regulation of banks has increased in recent years, increasing costs, especially for smaller organisations with less resources.

A new wave of solutions known as “regtech” is starting to streamline the work of compliance and thereby reduce the costs.

Using advanced data analytics, regtech solutions can help banks identify potential risks and compliance issues with greater precision, reducing the likelihood of mistakes and penalties.

Evolving customer expectations

Having become accustomed to the digital experience offered by Apple, Amazon and Google, customers expect their banks to interact more like these top technology brands.

“The traditional approach of bank-developed products being served up to customers is unlikely to survive until 2030, as customers increasingly seek the providers that can best meet their specific needs,” said Matt Baxby, CEO – Australia, at finance app Revolut.

Customers are increasingly conscious of ethical, environmental, and social issues and will continue to look to their banks that reflect their values.

“The consumer of 2030 will be more socially and environmentally conscious than at any other point in history,” said KPMG. “In this reality, earning and maintaining a licence to operate is dependent on having a clear social and commercial purpose that extends beyond serving the immediate needs of the customer to solving deeper societal challenges our community faces.”

Moving to the cloud

To fully benefit from the rapid technological changes that are occurring and respond quickly to consumer needs, banks are switching from onsite IT infrastructure to cloud-based solutions for their core banking systems.

The cloud becomes a place for banks to store data and applications and access advanced software applications via the internet.

The shift offers numerous benefits including cost-efficiency, scalability, improved security, and the facilitation of AI integration.  

The move to the cloud will strengthen the trend toward banks and fintechs partnering to better meet the needs of customers than they could acting independently.

“As the industry diversifies, industry players will find new ways of working cooperatively, taking advantage of partnership models to deliver better services to consumers,” said Adam Roberts, VP Digital, Data and Payments Innovation, AMEX.

Our journey

As Police Bank approaches the celebration of its 60^th anniversary next year, we are undergoing a transformation that will underpin our sustainability in the years to come.

A key part of becoming a bank of the future is our transition to a new core banking system, which will offer members a more seamless way of banking with us.

We have partnered with fintech Temenos that will provide us with the agility to adopt new technologies as they become available and meet your changing needs for many years to come.

Our digital modernisation will not reduce face-to-face interaction between members and our staff, but rather free up staff from clunky systems so they have time for more purposeful matters – like conversations with you.

This project will allow us to deliver a better, safer banking experience for you today and into the future, while maintaining our focus on our members and giving back to our community.

We will keep you informed every step of the way. So keep an eye out for updates from us.

“Spotlight articles are prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs and are published  for information purposes only. You should consider the appropriateness of any content to your circumstances. Visit Important documents to access Terms and Conditions and the Financial Services Guide which are currently available electronically for products of Police Bank Limited. Target Market Determinations are available here. Loan applications are subject to lending criteria and credit approval. Interest rates are subject to change. Fees and charges may apply.”

Currently Optus are experiencing a nationwide outage which is impacting some member payment transactions.

Our contact centre is available on www.borderbank.com.au/contact-us