Banking innovators say consumers will be the winners after a government decision that banks may not charge for access to customer data. Yesterday, the Government announced final open banking regulations, which the big four banks will be required to meet from December, with Kiwibank added over the following year.
Banks will not be able to charge financial tech companies to access data or process payments. This would cover a range of new apps for example, budgeting, bill splitting, money transfer, and savings apps. The Government had proposed allowing the big banks to charge fintechs as much as $5 a month per customer, or one cent per request for data. The fintech sector argued this would threaten their viability and allowed banks to stifle competitive innovation.
The Banking Association says it supports open banking, and is pleased the regulations have been completed six weeks ahead of implementation. James Wigglesworth is co-founder at budgeting app Pocketsmith, and Josh Daniell is the co-founder of open banking data provider Akahu.
A woman shops online from her phone. Photo: Unsplash/ Vitaly Gariev
