This is on the mend - big bank transfers have in the past been set for a number of days – a long standing issue where it takes days to see money transferred from one bank (read a mission society) to another bank (read a missionary's bank account).
News.com recent article explains how the problem is being fixed so such transfers happen immediately (almost at once).
This is the question: In the age of the instant everything, why does the money I transfer electronically disappear from my account immediately, but take up to five business days to reach its destination?
That is a long time for missionaries to wait for much needed funds when transferred from their mission societies.
Giftings from many ordinary people and churches come into missionary societies ear marked for missionaries they support, or some times direct deposits from their private bank accounts to missionary's accounts.
Can you imagine any company paying wages and salaries by direct bank transfers payments and saying – sorry employees, there will be a five day wait til you can access your legally earned monies. There would be a national outcry.
Missionaries for years have had to put up with this horrible and unethical delay.
Bank matters
News.com Carin Pickworth asks: Are the financial institutions of Australia stocking their staff kitchens with Krispy Kreme or sending their executives on round-the-world trips with the interest they’re skimming from my sluggish transactions?
Australian Payment Clearing Association (APCA) CEO Leila Fourie has been faced with suspicion like mine more than once, but she is here to reassure us all. “Financial institutions give the payer the benefit of any interest until the nominated payment date and the payee gets the benefit from that date,” Ms Fourie said.
Apparently APCA imposes its own rules upon banks for payment clearing and the voluntary e-payments code and legal obligations must also be abided by, but at the end of the day, each financial institution operates within its own Terms and Conditions.
“The rules for clearing most payment instruments in Australia, including direct debits and direct credits, are governed by our organisation,” she said.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) told news.com.au the CBA make up to six transfers between the Big Four banks each weekday trying to get payments cleared as quickly as possible for anxious people like me, says Carin Pickworth.
Good news
The good news is all of this fuss could soon go away instantly if the RBA delivers on its New Payments Policy (NPP). In their own words; “The NPP is being developed via industry collaboration to enable households, businesses and government agencies to make simply-addressed payments, with near real-time funds availability to the recipient, on a 24/7 basis.”
Carin Pickworth - I admit, my life is ruled by my mobile banking, mobile shopping, mobile gaming, mobile socialising, mobile memory-capturing mobile phone that is pretty much permanently connected to my head, hand, hip.
Moreover Carin says - “My baby boomer father will lament that my generation (Y) “expects everything yesterday”.
For missionaries it isn't yesterday that's the issue, it's that a transfer today means today. There are now also separate companies that transfer the funds immediately for the donor and the recipient.
Also now I can take a photo of a cheque and transfer it instantly into the mission account.
Dr Mark Tronson - a 4 min video
Chairman – Well-Being Australia
Baptist Minister 45 years
- 1984 - Australian cricket team chaplain 17 years (Ret)
- 2001 - Life After Cricket (18 years Ret)
- 2009 - Olympic Ministry Medal – presented by Carl Lewis
- 2019 - The Gutenberg - (ARPA Christian Media premier award)
Gutenberg video - 2min 14sec
Married to Delma for 45 years with 4 children and 6 grand children