Open banking launches in New Zealand

Open banking is now live in New Zealand for personal internet banking customers.

This marks the official commencement of the Consumer Data Right regime in this country, along with the start of a new role for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) as the regulator for open banking.

As we have written about before, only specific personal internet banking platforms offered by ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac needed to be ready to meet the new requirements for their customers by 1 December 2025. This is the first step in what MBIE is calling a “phased rollout” of open banking.

There have been a number of new CDR developments now announced by MBIE.

Register of Participants

The Register of Participants – the official list of organisations included in the CDR framework – is now live on MBIE’s website. The Register will be updated to include information about both data holders and accredited requestors.

Accreditation

Organisations can now apply to MBIE to become an accredited data requestor for open banking via MBIE’s website.

Detailed accreditation guidelines have been published by MBIE. These guidelines confirm the criteria for becoming accredited and the documentary evidence that will need to be provided in support of an application. The question of what additional requirements will be imposed on those acting as intermediaries has been left somewhat open-ended in the guidelines:

Intermediaries

Additional requirements are imposed on those acting as an intermediary (i.e. those wanting to make requests under section 15 and/or section 19 of the Act). Primarily these requirements are for ensuring adequate due diligence measures are in place for engaging with 4th parties to whom data requests will be fulfilled. Evidence is required for the Accreditor to be satisfied that appropriate measures are in place.

Initially, MBIE will process accreditation applications in tranches based on the number of existing data-sharing bilateral agreements the data requestors have in place with banks under Payments NZ’s API Centre programme:

1. Applicants with four bilateral arrangements (i.e. with every mandated bank).

2. Applicants with multiple bilaterals.

3. Applicants with one bilateral.

4. Applicants without any bilaterals.

After the “initial wave of applications” has been processed, MBIE says it aims to maintain a 20-day service level for processing standard accreditation requests.

Consumer Data Right Accredited Requestor logo

Accredited data requestors will use an official accreditation trust mark to help consumers know they are dealing with a trusted participant.

Data holders

Data holders that want to opt in to the CDR framework can also contact MBIE through its website. For open banking, the five major banks have been nominated to be designated data holders. Other deposit takers can volunteer to be a data holder by notifying MBIE.

Fees and levies

Customer and Product Data (Fees) Regulations 2025 have now been issued to give effect to the fees and levies that will fund the operation of the CDR framework, including accreditation, compliance and oversight. These fees and levies had already been signposted by MBIE on its website.

Open banking standards

MBIE has also now confirmed that it has entered into a standards licensing agreement with Payments NZ. This agreement permits MBIE to incorporate by reference the Payments NZ API Centre’s v2.3.3 API standards for data, account information, payments, and API security, as well as the Customer Standard v1.1 – which was expected. However, there has been no confirmation at this time that Payments NZ’s API Centre will be designated as an approved third party standards body to manage and support the technical standards. Reliance on standards already implemented and used by industry has been a crucial element in meeting the ambitious 1 December deadline.

MBIE has confirmed that it will continue to work closely with industry over the coming months to provide further guidance and to “refine processes as the regime matures”. It says it will also expand its website throughout 2026 to include more consumer education.

The official launch of open banking in New Zealand is a significant milestone for the local industry. If your business needs advice on the CDR regime, feel free to reach out to our team.

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