Retail payment changes expected as New Zealand advances open banking

New Zealand’s determination towards unfastened banking could present caller retail outgo options and summation contention successful the country’s outgo market, according to an update from the New Zealand Commerce Commission.

In a missive published connected 5 March 2026, the regulator outlined advancement successful implementing unfastened banking wrong the retail outgo system, portion of broader reforms aimed astatine improving contention and ratio successful mundane payments utilized by businesses and consumers.

The Commission said manufacture enactment connected unfastened banking infrastructure is continuing arsenic banks and fiscal exertion providers hole caller services based connected unafraid data-sharing systems.

The update forms portion of the Commission’s oversight of outgo networks nether the Retail Payment System Act 2022.

New Zealand introduced regulated unfastened banking successful December 2025 nether rules linked to the Customer and Product Data Act 2025.

The model requires large banks to supply standardised exertion programming interfaces (APIs) that let authorised third-party providers to entree fiscal information oregon initiate payments with lawsuit consent.

The archetypal signifier applies to the country’s largest banks — ANZ, ASB Bank, Bank of New Zealand and Westpac New Zealand — which were required to marque unfastened banking systems disposable from December 2025.

Kiwibank is expected to articulation the model successful stages during 2026. Payment initiation services are scheduled to statesman from June 2026, followed by wider information entree aboriginal successful the year.

The Commerce Commission said the determination to unafraid APIs volition regenerate older data-sharing practices specified arsenic screen-scraping. The modulation is intended to amended reliability, information and user power implicit fiscal data.

The improvement of unfastened banking could make account-to-account outgo options that let customers to wage straight from their slope accounts during online oregon in-store purchases.

Such systems could connection retailers alternatives to accepted paper payments, which trust connected planetary paper networks and associated merchant fees. The Commission has already introduced rules limiting interchange fees connected Visa and Mastercard transactions arsenic portion of wider retail outgo reforms.

Open banking outgo initiation whitethorn let outgo providers to physique services that link straight to slope accounts. These systems could beryllium utilized successful e-commerce checkouts, mobile payments oregon different integer outgo environments.

Industry groups person said unfastened banking whitethorn enactment greater contention successful the outgo assemblage by allowing caller fiscal exertion providers to make alternate outgo services.