In this issue of Member Matters:
Our latest member newsletter is here, and includes:
- A message from Deputy Chair Deb Robertson
- A round-up of our recent support for the BankVic community
- How to recognise cryptocurrency investment scams
- How BankVic stopped or recovered $5.8 million for members
- Highlights from the Wall to Wall Ride and Police Week
- Details about our 2027 calendar and upcoming AGM.
When I joined the BankVic Board in 2017, what struck me most was that this was a financial institution with a genuine understanding of the people it serves. BankVic was created by police officers for their own community, and that connection to police, emergency services, health workers and their families remains at the heart of what it does.
Over the past nine years, I have been incredibly proud of what we have achieved and of the opportunity I have had to learn from passionate and talented banking professionals who are deeply committed to doing the right thing for members and supporting the communities they serve.
I will retire from the Board at November’s Annual General Meeting. Being a Director of BankVic has been a privilege, and I am grateful to all our members and the wider BankVic community for the opportunity to serve you in this way.
Serving members is why we were created. When a group of police officers met at Russell Street in August 1974 and voted to establish a credit co-op, they wanted an organisation that understood and supported them. What they built is still here, still owned by its members, and still doing the same job for police, emergency services and health workers.
Every Director since has been a custodian, holding the responsibility for a while and handing it on in better condition than they found it. That’s the privilege and responsibility each of us is honoured to have for the time we serve.
BankVic’s Annual Report and Annual Review are both published this month. Between them they report how your bank performed over the past year, what we have been improving and expanding, and what we’re working on next for you.
Elsewhere in this edition, you’ll see the ways we have been supporting the BankVic community in recent months, what our fraud team recovered for members this year, a piece on investment and cryptocurrency scams, which are now the costliest type of scam in Australia, and details about BankVic’s 2027 calendar.
Thank you for your membership and support of BankVic, and please get in touch with our team if we can help you with anything at all.
Strength in service at the ACWAP Development Seminar
BankVic supported the Australian Council of Women and Policing Development Seminar in Darwin on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 August, the second year we’ve backed the seminar after Melbourne in 2025.
Co-hosted with Northern Territory Police, this year’s seminar took the theme Strength in Service. Unstoppable Together, and brought together policing women from across Australia and New Zealand for two days of professional development, conversation, and recognition through the 27th Excellence in Policing Awards.
Over the past four years, we’ve worked with the Victorian ACWAP committee and Victoria Police on the Victoria Police ACWAP BankVic Scholarship, which sends a mentor and a mentee to the seminar together, and supports that mentoring relationship long after the seminar ends.
This year we proudly sponsored twelve officers to attend:
- 2 x Victoria Police members through that scholarship
- 2 x Australian Federal Police members through our AFPA partnership
- 8 x Northern Territory Police members through our NTPA partnership.
Delivering the sponsorship address, our Chief Product & Marketing Officer Rebecca Boissezon said:
“It’s not just about putting our logo on a banner or having our name on a program. It’s about helping people access opportunities. While we’re a bank, it’s never really been just about the money. Our purpose is helping people go further.”
The Excellence in Policing Awards recognised work across integrity, leadership, investigation, and community policing from both sides of the Tasman. Our congratulations to every nominee and recipient.
Our appreciation to all attendees for making us feel so welcome in Darwin. We’re looking forward to seeing where the next twelve months take you.
Around the BankVic community
As a member-owned bank, supporting you and your colleagues is a large part of what we do. In recent months we’ve been able to:
- Deliver financial wellbeing seminars in police, health, and legatee workplaces
- Support workplace recognition and excellence awards across our partner organisations
- Support the Victorian contingent of the Wall to Wall Ride for Remembrance
- Visit police stations, hospitals, and fire stations to help members with their banking.
Thank you to our members and partner organisations for the way we work together across the whole BankVic community.
Real crypto exchange, real account... but fake investment
The investment scam causing the most damage in Australia right now uses a legitimate cryptocurrency exchange, an account opened in your own name, and money you transfer yourself. There’s no fake banking page, no stolen password, and nothing that looks obviously wrong at the time.
Australians reported losing $837.7 million to investment scams in 2025, more than to any other scam type. Cryptocurrency has also overtaken bank transfers as the payment method carrying the largest total losses.
How it works
Contact usually arrives unexpectedly. It might be a message on social media, an approach through a professional network, or a phone call you weren’t expecting.
Early on, the conversation moves to WhatsApp, Telegram, or another messaging app.
The person presents as a financial adviser or investment specialist. They’re patient, they’re available, and they answer questions properly.
Over days or weeks, they help you open an account with a real cryptocurrency exchange. Nothing about that step is fake, and that’s precisely why the rest works.
You’re then introduced to an investment platform. It has a dashboard, a login, and a balance that grows.
You’re asked to buy cryptocurrency through the exchange and transfer it to a wallet address the adviser provides.
The first investment is usually small. As the balance on the platform rises, so does the amount you’re comfortable putting in.
Deposits are often prompted by an event. You’re told the market has turned volatile and your money needs to move immediately to avoid a loss, which turns a considered decision into an urgent one.
Some people are allowed to make an early withdrawal, which removes any remaining doubt.
The problem appears when you try to withdraw a larger sum. There’s a fee to pay first, or a tax, or a verification step that requires another deposit. Each one is paid, and the withdrawal never arrives.
By that stage, the cryptocurrency has moved to a wallet controlled by someone else, often offshore.
Once it’s gone, recovery is close to impossible.
Why it’s convincing
Every element that would normally trigger suspicion has been smoothed out:
- The exchange is genuine and licensed
- The account is in your own name, opened by you, using your own identification
- The money leaves your account through your own instruction
- There’s no unauthorised access, no compromised password, and nothing your bank can reverse.
The adviser has usually built a relationship over weeks or months. The contact is regular, sometimes weekly, and it is framed as looking after you. In some cases several people are involved, each presenting as a crypto specialist in a different part of the world, which makes the operation look like a firm rather than a person.
Some coach you on exactly what to say if your bank queries the transfer, often by suggesting the bank will freeze your account or that staff don’t understand cryptocurrency. If one bank raises concerns, you may be encouraged to move the money through another.
Artificial intelligence has made the supporting material harder to pick.
In the 2025-26 financial year, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) removed more than 19,400 online scams, up 182% on the previous year, including more than 3,000 cryptocurrency investment scams.
Signals worth stopping for
- Someone guiding you through the transaction by phone, message, screen share, or remote access
- Guaranteed returns, or returns that stay unusually consistent
- Regular check-in calls over weeks or months, sometimes from several people claiming crypto expertise
- Urgency built on market movement, with money needing to move immediately to avoid a loss
- Coaching on what to tell your bank
- Pressure to move money through a second institution after the first asks questions
- A payment required before you can withdraw, described as a fee, a tax, or a compliance step
- A recovery service offering to retrieve cryptocurrency you lost in an earlier scam, sometimes claiming to be from a government agency or the police.
Recovery approaches deserve particular attention. Being scammed once makes you a target for a second attempt, and the second approach often arrives dressed as help.
Stop, check, protect
ASIC’s consumer website, Moneysmart, suggests doing three things before you do anything with your money:
Stop
Don’t transact while someone is guiding you through it by phone, message, screen share, or remote access. Take the time to research the investment independently, without the adviser present.
Check
Confirm the adviser and the business through ASIC’s professional registers and the Financial Advisers Register, and check the Moneysmart Investor Alert List. Verify contact details yourself rather than using links, documents, or numbers supplied by the person promoting the investment. Then test your own understanding: can you explain how the investment makes money and where the returns come from?
Protect
Never share banking passwords, security codes, or a wallet recovery phrase with anyone, for any reason. Only send cryptocurrency to a wallet you created and control.
If you think you’re already in one
Act quickly, and don’t send anything further.
- Stop communicating with the adviser
- Call BankVic on 13 63 73 so we can look at your accounts
- Contact the cryptocurrency exchange directly, using details from its own website
- Remove any remote-access software and change the passwords on your device
- Report the scam at scamwatch.gov.au
- Talk to someone you trust, or an independent financial adviser.
Scams are designed by professionals to work on careful people. Support is available if you need it, through Lifeline on 13 11 14 and Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636.
Where to get help
Our team can look at your accounts and talk through anything that doesn’t seem right. We would rather take a call that turns out to be nothing than see a member lose money.
Call us before you transfer, not after. Last financial year, we stopped $5.8 million of members’ money from reaching scammers.
Call us on 13 63 73 between 8.00am - 6.00pm (Melbourne time) Monday to Friday, or email info@bankvic.com.au
$5.8 million returned to members
In the 2026 financial year, BankVic’s fraud and financial crime team stopped or recovered $5.8 million of members’ money from scams and fraud, up from the $5 million we saved in the previous financial year.
That work happens quietly, most often before the member knows anything is wrong. It’s one of the practical benefits of banking with an institution whose only shareholders are its customers.
Wall to Wall Ride for Remembrance
On September 11 and 12, the Victorian contingent of the Wall to Wall Ride for Remembrance travelled from Melbourne to Canberra, honouring police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty, and raising funds for Police Legacy organisations that continue to support police families around Australia.
Beginning at the Victoria Police Memorial, riders travelled through Sale, Lakes Entrance, Cann River and Merimbula, before joining police and community from across Australia in Canberra. Together they formed up and rode to the National Police Memorial for a moving remembrance service honouring fallen officers and their sacrifice.
BankVic was honoured to once again stand alongside the Victorian riders as support crew throughout the journey. Our team provided refreshments and assistance at stops along the route, and sponsored breakfast in Merimbula before the final leg to Canberra.
Having supported the ride for many years, we know how moving and impactful this event is. Watching riders carry the Chief Commissioner’s baton across Victoria before joining thousands of others in Canberra is a powerful reminder that those who have served, and those who have been lost, are always remembered.
The support shown for Police Legacy organisations, police families and legatees demonstrates the enduring strength of the policing community.
We thank the riders, volunteers, organisers and Victoria Police Legacy team for their commitment to this important tradition of remembrance.
Chief Commissioner visits for Police Week
On Tuesday 15 September, we welcomed Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush CNZM to BankVic’s head office to speak with our team during Police Week.
The Chief Commissioner shared his observations about Victoria Police, its people, the work underway to strengthen the organisation, and the commitment of police members to keeping their communities safe. He also praised BankVic’s place and role within the police community, thanking our team for the way we support police members, former members, and their families.
We were founded by Victoria Police officers in 1974. More than five decades later, we remain proud of that history and of the relationship we continue to share with Victoria Police and its people.
Thank you Chief Commissioner, for spending time with our team, answering questions, and for your generous acknowledgement of the long and close partnership between Victoria Police and BankVic.
Your 2027 calendar is here
The popular BankVic calendars are back from the printers and being sent to households and workplaces. Members who receive posted statements will automatically receive one calendar per household with their October statement.
If you receive your statements electronically, or you’d like extra copies for the station, the ward, or the staffroom, you can request a printed copy.
You can also download and print both the standard calendar and the wall calendar.
Notice of Annual General Meeting
BankVic’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) for 2026 will be held at 11.00am AEDT on Wednesday 4 November, and is being held virtually so members will be able to join the meeting online.
The full Notice of AGM and supporting information is available here.
Little Copper Club Education Award winner
Congratulations to Isaac Geerings, winner of the Little Copper Club Education Award, which was drawn on Monday 13 July.
Thank you, Deb
Deputy Chair Debra Robertson retires from the BankVic Board at November’s Annual General Meeting, having served nine years, the maximum tenure for BankVic directors.
Deb joined the Board in 2017 and during her time on the Board, BankVic has grown significantly and our connection to our history and members has strengthened even more.
With more than four decades of distinguished service in policing and public safety, Deb retired from Victoria Police in 2024 at the rank of Commander, and was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Victoria Police Legacy in January 2025.
We thank Deb for her dedication, wise counsel and significant contribution to BankVic, and wish her every success as she continues her important work with Victoria Police Legacy.
- Anthony De Fazio
