Open banking in Aotearoa New Zealand continues to gain momentum. In October, more than 100,000 unique customers used open banking services powered by the Payments NZ API Centre’s industry-created API standards, completing over 180,000 payments – a significant milestone in how New Zealanders choose to send and receive payments.
Why this matters
Four of the major banks in Aotearoa – ANZ, ASB, BNZ, and Westpac are on track to implement the latest version 2.3 of Payments NZ API Centre’s open banking API standards. These standards, alongside new performance standards which sets industry benchmarks for reliability and compliance, are the foundations of safe and secure open banking in Aotearoa.
Phil Cass, Head of the API Centre at Payments NZ, says we are at an exciting threshold in the country’s open banking journey.
“We have the Customer and Product Data Act legislative framework coming into effect on 1 December. Just ahead of it, the four major banks in Aotearoa, which serves around 90% of banking customers, have already or are on track to meet the API Centre’s implementation milestone of being live with the latest version of our API standards by the end of November. More than ever, I’m certain that the industry is gaining strong momentum, innovating at pace and delivering greater choice and convenience to their customers through our open banking standards.”
What’s new?
The API Centre is rolling out version 2.3 of the Account Information API standard, following the May industry implementation of the v2.3 Payment Initiation standard. This version of the Account Information standard ensures high priority customer data can be made available for sharing, ensuring customers have even greater control over their data and who, what, when and where they wish to share it.
Together with other functionalities supported by the v2.3 Payment Initiation standard, such as enduring payment consent and decoupled authentication, this latest update ensures the Centre’s open banking standards continue to be world class.
Cass says the Centre has made secure open banking a reality in Aotearoa.
“A growing number of services in market are now built on our API standards. The customer experience underpinned by our standards keeps improving over time, with some open banking payments now taking just three clicks and a biometric face scan to complete. This is made possible by the seamless experience between the fintech and bank enabled by our API standards, and it is also quick and safe for the customer.
Our latest iteration of the Account Information standard is a game-changer – it moves us into the realm of global best practice; alongside markets we look to as benchmarks like the UK. We’re delivering seamless payment experiences while ensuring customers stay in control of their data sharing and payments at all times,” he says.
One of the API Centre’s registered Third Party fintechs, Volley, recently partnered with crowdfunding platform Givealittle, offering their open banking solution built on the Centre’s standards as a payment option. This service has been used by thousands of Givealittle donors since October.
“Seeing New Zealanders embrace open banking so quickly through Givealittle has been really encouraging. Donations are such a powerful human expression of generosity, and people are likely to give more when the process is simple, fast, and trustworthy," says Jack Callister, Volley co-founder.
“With Volley, all someone needs to do is tap or scan a QR code, approve the payment in their banking app, and they’re done. Making payments easy and secure is exactly what open banking is designed to achieve.”
“The momentum we’ve seen as a business tells us that customers are more than willing to use open banking products and services if they’re available. What happens on 1 December is part of the continuing story of open banking in Aotearoa, and we’re excited to see open banking evolve to become one of the go-to ways of paying in future.”
Building trust through performance
The next step as the open banking ecosystem in Aotearoa matures is in ensuring that common industry benchmarks are in place for availability, performance and reliability. The API Centre’s performance standard v1.0 becomes mandatory for our API Providers (banks) from 28 November and plays a key role in accountability and transparency through reporting of any open banking API performance issues such as outages.
API Providers must meet minimum uptime thresholds and report monthly on success ratios, response times, throughput, and throttling, including notification of both planned and unplanned outages requiring prompt notification to Third Parties (fintechs), with clear details on affected APIs and restoration targets.
The first set of performance data will be published on the API Centre website next year, giving the ecosystem visibility into API reliability and driving continuous improvement. Metrics such as hourly and monthly response times, success ratios, and throughput will be monitored and made available publicly, supporting compliance reviews and continuous improvement.
The performance standard, along with other API Centre operational standards, can be viewed here.
The bigger picture
As Payments NZ works with MBIE and industry partners, the goal is clear: a sustainable open banking ecosystem that balances regulation and customer innovation. The introduction of a formal, regulated framework through the Customer and Product Data Act will further streamline access and drive uptake.
Julia Nicol, Head of Public Affairs at Worldline says the next chapter of open banking is here and it promises to be even more transformative for New Zealanders.
“Open banking is critical for the payments ecosystem in Aotearoa. Worldline was one the first organisations in Aotearoa to launch an open banking service – Online Eftpos, powered by the API Centre’s standards. Its popularity has grown over the last few years, with 45% year-on-year growth. Notably, one of New Zealand’s largest quick service restaurants now sees 20% of its ecommerce traffic via Online Eftpos, and we expect this to keep accelerating.
“We’re looking forward to implementing the performance standards, which will give businesses and consumers even more confidence in open banking, knowing that their payments continue to be secure, consistent, and resilient even as technology evolves.
“From our view, Aotearoa is at the forefront of secure, customer-driven innovation. The future of open banking is bright – and every customer stands to benefit from a more open, connected financial ecosystem.”