Open banking in NZ, explained: what actually changed in 2025–26

For years, "open banking is coming to New Zealand" was a running joke in fintech circles — always eighteen months away. Then it actually arrived: on 1 December 2025, New Zealand's first regulated open banking system went live. Most people still aren't sure what that means for them, and the explanations available tend to be written for lawyers or for banks.

Here's the plain-English version.

TL;DR: Open banking lets you tell your bank to share your account data with a service you choose — securely, through official channels, without ever giving anyone your password. It's law in NZ under the Customer and Product Data Act 2025. ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac have been in since 1 December 2025; Kiwibank joins during 2026. Only accredited organisations can request your data, you approve everything through your own bank, you can revoke access any time, and it's free.

What is open banking?

Open banking is a system that lets you instruct your bank to share your account data — balances, transactions, account details — with another service you've chosen, through secure standardised connections called APIs. You approve access through your own bank, the service never sees your password, and you can cancel the arrangement whenever you like.

The name throws some people: nothing about your banking is "opened" to anyone by default. Nothing is shared until you say so, with a specific provider, for a specific purpose.

When did open banking start in New Zealand?

The legal framework is the Customer and Product Data Act 2025, which received Royal Assent in March 2025 and switched on for banking — the first designated sector — on 1 December 2025.

The rollout is staged:

1 December 2025 — ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac are designated as "data holders". When an accredited service asks, with your permission, these banks must share your designated data through standard APIs.
1 June 2026 — Kiwibank is designated for payment initiation.
1 December 2026 — Kiwibank is designated for account information.
Other deposit takers (smaller banks, credit unions) can opt in to the system.

New Zealand's regime is closely modelled on Australia's Consumer Data Right, which has been running since 2020 — so while the NZ system is new, the blueprint isn't.

What data can apps actually access?

The designation covers a specific list, not a blank cheque. For the designated banks, it includes:

customer names and contact details
account numbers and account types
balances
up to two years of transaction history
statements

The rules also designate one action: payment initiation, meaning you can authorise a service to set up a payment from your account (again, approved by you at your bank). And notably, banks are prohibited from charging fees for these data transfers — open banking access costs you nothing.

A budgeting app typically uses the read-only slice of this: transactions and balances. Two years of history is enough for an app to see your actual pay cycle, your recurring bills, and your real spending patterns — which is what turns a raw balance into something useful, like the Safe to Spend number: what's genuinely yours after rent, power, Afterpay and your savings goals are set aside.

How does consent work?

Consent is the load-bearing wall of the whole system:

A service you want to use (say, a budgeting app) asks for access to your data.
You're sent to your own bank — its app or website — to approve the request. You log in with your bank as you normally would; the other service never sees your credentials.
Your bank shares only the data covered by that consent, for as long as the consent lasts.
You can revoke access at any time.

There's a forward-looking safeguard too: from 1 June 2027, accredited services must remind you every 12 months about any active permissions you hold with them, and tell you how to cancel — so a connection you set up and forgot about doesn't quietly persist for years.

Who is allowed to request your data?

Not just anyone. Organisations must become accredited requestors under criteria set by the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE). Accreditation requires, among other things:

adequate security safeguards
appropriate insurance
membership of a dispute resolution scheme
compliance with the Privacy Act 2020

MBIE maintains a public register of accredited participants, so you can check who's actually in the system. Many consumer apps connect through an accredited intermediary — a specialist that holds the accreditation and manages bank connections on behalf of multiple apps. That's an expected and legitimate structure under the Act: intermediaries must satisfy MBIE that the apps they serve have adequate security safeguards and comply with the Privacy Act too.

What does open banking mean for budgeting apps?

Before the Act, NZ budgeting apps that offered "automatic bank feeds" mostly relied on arrangements that involved handling your internet banking credentials in some form — which is why the "should I really connect this?" anxiety was justified, and why most banks' terms frowned on it. We've written a full guide on whether it's safe to connect a budgeting app to your bank.

Under open banking, the model inverts: the app never touches your password, gets read-only data you explicitly approved, and can be disconnected by you at any time. For the category, that's the difference between "trust me" and "verify me".

Two honest caveats:

The transition is still underway. Providers are progressively migrating from older methods to the official APIs, and Kiwibank's account data doesn't arrive until December 2026. It's fair to ask any app which method it currently uses.
You still don't have to connect anything. Every major NZ bank lets you download transactions as a CSV and import them yourself. Owdyn works that way today on every plan — no bank login, nothing to revoke — with automatic sync via the regulated system coming to paid plans after launch. If you'd rather feel it before deciding anything, the free Safe to Spend calculator needs no signup and no connection: everything you type stays on the page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is open banking compulsory in New Zealand?

No. Open banking gives you the option to share your data — nothing is shared unless you actively approve a specific request with a specific provider. If you never use it, nothing about your banking changes. The obligation sits with the big four banks (and later Kiwibank), which must share designated data when you ask them to.

Does open banking cost me anything?

No. The regulations prohibit banks from charging fees for the designated data transfers. Individual apps may charge for their own services, but the open banking access itself is free to you.

Is open banking the same as giving an app my bank password?

No — it's the opposite. Under open banking you approve access at your own bank, and the app never sees your login. Typing your internet banking password into a third-party app is the older "screen scraping" approach, which most NZ banks' terms don't permit and which open banking was designed to replace.

Which NZ banks support open banking?

ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac have been designated data holders since 1 December 2025. Kiwibank is designated for payment initiation from 1 June 2026 and for account information from 1 December 2026. Other deposit takers, such as smaller banks and credit unions, can opt in to the system.

Can I cancel an app's access to my bank data?

Yes, at any time — through the app, and the underlying authorisation can also be managed with your bank. From 1 June 2027, accredited services must additionally remind you every 12 months about any permissions you've left active and explain how to revoke them.

How much transaction history can an app see?

Up to two years, if you consent to it. The designation covers customer and account details, balances, up to two years of transaction history, and statements. An app only receives the data covered by the specific consent you approve.

Sources

Owdyn is a budgeting app built in New Zealand around one idea: Safe to Spend — the number that shows what's genuinely yours after bills, Afterpay and savings goals. It works today with CSV import from any NZ bank, no bank login required, and there's a free plan.