API Centre - opening banking overview and API standards
This page provides a brief and general overview of open banking and the API standards available in New Zealand, as of July 2025.
Open Banking
Open banking allows customers to authorise third parties to securely access their data held with banks or initiate payment on their behalf, through standardised APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). This approach increases transparency, innovation, and choice across the financial services sector.
Open banking breaks down the silos between banks and third-party developers, enabling new services and products like personal finance tools, streamlined payments, and tailored banking solutions.
Customers remain in control of their data, deciding when and who can access their information, while robust security measures are enforced to protect this sensitive data.
Open Banking Standards in Aotearoa NZ
API Centre open banking standards have been carefully developed in a non-regulated, industry led environment, in a collaborative process involving technical and business working groups from across the financial industry. These standards define how banks and third parties communicate, what data they can access, and how security and customer consent are managed.
The Consumer Product and Data Act 2025, expected to include a designation of the banking sector from 1 December 2025, create a regulatory framework for open banking. The API Centre has been working with MBIE who anticipate incorporating its available APIs into the regulatory regime.
API Centre Standards will evolve over time, and the API Centre will remain market-led to ensure that its standards will deliver value to customers across Aotearoa NZ.
Key Standards and Versions
Account Information API: Allows customers to grant permission for third parties to access their accounts, balances, transactions, statements and more.
Payments Initiation API: Enables customers to authorise third parties to initiate payments directly from their bank accounts, with options for single or recurring (enduring) payments.
Version progressions:
Early versions focused on establishing core functionalities - secure sharing of account and payment data, robust customer authentication, and aligning with international best practices like the UK's Open Banking and Australian standards. Supported a pilot but these are now deprecated.
From v2.0 onwards, a key focus has been migrating optional resources to mandatory to ensure a baseline of consistent functionality across banks as API Providers. This has created more uniform, secure, versatile, developer friendly integrations and improved customer experiences.
v3.0 (planned for 2026) marks a major advancement. It introduces an Event Notification API so third parties can be notified automatically when certain account activities happen (e.g., a payment is confirmed or a consent status changed).
The API Security profiles set out how Third Parties connect securely to an API Provider and support each version of the Payment Initiation and Account Information API standards.They are based on the OpenID Foundation's FAPI Read/Write specification document and applies standards to the New Zealand market context. Security profiles are reviewed and updated to ensure they remain up to date and capable of supporting any new functions implemented in the standards.
At a glance
Standards Usage
The API Centre’s open banking API standards are being actively used in New Zealand via the use of third-party services connected to the four major New Zealand banks, BNZ, ANZ, ASB and Westpac.
Kiwibank is scheduled to deliver open banking standards for payment initiation and account information sharing by 30 May and 30 Nov 2026, respectively, raising the participation potential of New Zealand consumers to around 95%.
Disclaimer
The overview has been prepared for the sole purpose of providing general and informative information to help those less familiar with open banking and the API Standards currently available in New Zealand.
The API Centre does not make any express or implied warranty, guarantee or representation regarding the information above.