Digital Payments & Fintech - New Zealand

There is no specific licence for e-money institutions or payment service providers. Obligations depend on the activity (e.g., whether the firm issues debt securities or takes repayable funds), arising under the FMC Act 2013 and potentially the Non-bank Deposit Takers Act 2013.

Financial markets follow a 'twin peaks' model: the Financial Markets Authority handles conduct regulation while the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Te Pūtea Matua) handles prudential regulation, including operating the ESAS settlement system.

The Customer and Product Data Act 2025 establishes a sectoral consumer data right, beginning with banking. Designated firms must share data/initiate NZD payments with consumer consent to MBIE-accredited requestors; the four major banks (ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac) were designated from 1 December 2025, with Kiwibank phased in from June 2026.

Buy Now Pay Later was brought under the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act framework via amendment regulations effective 2 September 2024, applying most consumer-credit protections (with simplified credit checks); a November 2024 amendment exempted BNPL from certain unreasonable-fee provisions.

New Zealand has not yet established a domestic real-time payments scheme; Payments NZ is coordinating exploration of infrastructure options. Wholesale infrastructure has modernised — ESAS was upgraded to ISO 20022 (phase 2 delivered July 2025) and NZ migrated cross-border SWIFT messaging to ISO 20022 ahead of the November 2025 deadline.

Payment and fintech firms are 'reporting entities' under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act and generally must register on the Financial Service Providers Register, though this registration is not a payments-specific authorisation.