The Catholic Development Fund of Maitland-Newcastle

Bishop's welcome to the Catholic Development Fund of Maitland-Newcastle

The Catholic Development Fund (CDF) has operated in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle for over 50 years. The CDF assists with the management of finances for the diocese and its agencies, parishes and schools. It also offers retail clients a range of investment products.

Over the past five years, the CDF has focused effort on building its capital base and strengthening its risk management framework so as to provide something of a financial buffer in an often uncertain economic environment and in times of constant change.

The CDF is not immune to such change – and an example of this is the regulatory change that comes into effect from 1 January 2018. The change sees new regulations that require the CDF to gain an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) and an application for this was made in 2017.

These regulations will impact on the products the CDF can offer to retail investors. With this in mind the CDF has been communicating details of the impact of these changes to affected investors during 2017.

This is just one of the changes that I believe are among the many challenges the CDF faces in the year ahead.

The CDF intends to meet these challenges ‘head on’ in order to continue to support school developments and other initiatives such as affordable housing, early education through St Nicholas and the good work of CatholicCare.

The CDF will also continue to play its part in enabling the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle and its various agencies and instrumentalities to develop further existing initiatives and to sanction new ministries.

I thank all investors, our clergy and our agents for their loyal support which enables the Fund to help the diocese and its agencies to do God’s good work.

Your loyal support and your faith together form the bedrock of the Fund.

The best way we can thank you for this is for the Fund to continue to serve you. 

About the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle

Bishop William Wright is the pastoral leader of approximately 150,000 Catholics in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. The territory in the diocese extends from Lake Macquarie to Taree and as far inland as Merriwa and Murrurundi. The diocese provides pastoral, health care, social welfare and educational services for the community in the Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Hunter, Upper Hunter and Manning areas.