Fintech In NZ, More Than Travel Gateways Opening

The opening of New Zealand border has resulted in international tech, bank tech, platforms and countries parachuting into Aotearoa now, FinTechNZ executive director Jason Roberts says.

There is much more than just travel gateways opening up again, he says.

“International fintech providers and tech platforms are eyeing up a marketplace ripe for improvement, investment and for some, disruption.

They are able to parachute in platforms, global insight, capital and have established customer solutions. Our job is to welcome these new companies and their insights while at the same time learning from them.

“We have seen recent entrances from companies like Basiq, who really help enable Fintechs, EnvestnetYodlee and Temonos, both multinational banking tech innovation players who help incumbent organisations offer more nimble and innovative services).

“We welcome these international companies as they help enable the sector and puts more pressure on the market to accelerate innovation.

“It is important New Zealand leverages the new opportunities to shape what is best for our country and determine our own destiny, not simply being dominated yet again by international banks, insurers or tech platforms.”

Innovation has been a hallmark of financial services for decades, but with the emergence of transformative new technologies in recent years, the era of client-empowered finance is coming into full view.

And while technologies like blockchain and cloud computing attract much of the attention, application programming interfaces, or APIs, truly represent the future of financial services across the retail, institutional and post-trade areas.

Roberts says the appetite for open banking, where consumers allow third-party providers to use the financial information held by their bank to inform new products, is fast growing and will be further accelerated by the anticipated customer data right legislation.

“Progress in the sector differs by countries, but demand for and use of open banking services has been further expedited by the covid pandemic.

“To make open banking successful and sustainable, however, more banks need to embrace an end-to-end digital architecture.

“In recent years, technology has facilitated a progressive opening up of the banking industry. It has ushered in an era of collaboration not just competition between incumbent banks and fintech.

“What we want is to invite insight, challenge to shape best for New Zealand’s open banking and by inference improve our ability to export our fintech solution to the world.

“Most are fintechs well prepared for consumer data rights (CDR) legislation and have open banking capability they will be ripe to leverage a marketplace New Zealand.”

CDR gives people greater choice and control over their data businesses. It enables people to transfer their data to another business to find products and services tailored to their needs, saving time and money.

The reframe is strong bank actors leveraging fintech innovation in New Zealand and globally and at different levels such as Xero, Blinkpay and Dosh. The new services provide lower prices and the all-in-one pocket approach is good for customer.

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