Big four banks to hit minimum open banking deadline

The four major banks are moving toward a system allowing customers to make payments via third parties, using bank-approved software. Payments NZ - the bank-owned governance body that oversees payments systems, has set a May 30 deadline for the four banks to have minimum standards for stage one - known as payments initiation.

There are more than 300 fintech companies that have indicated interest to Payments NZ, that they want to be involved in more open banking. This third party involvement would in time go beyond account to account payments systems, to include budget analysis apps, and other personal banking tools - whose use would be approved by a customer's bank. 

Steve Wiggins is chief executive of Payments NZ.