About us

Whakatauākī

He pūwaha pūtea, he pūwaha tangata

A doorway for resource, a doorway for people

This whakatauākī encapsulates the core function and values at the heart of Payments NZ. The term "pūwaha" illustrates the dual nature of a river mouth and a doorway, symbolising both an entry and an exit point. At Payments NZ, we recognise our role as kaitiaki (guardians) and understand the vital responsibility we carry in overseeing the pathways through which resources—both financial and human—flow, ensuring they do so smoothly and sustainably. As kaitiaki, it is our duty to maintain the integrity and security of these flows, protecting and nurturing the vital connections they provide within our community.

Who we are 

We work with the industry to empower Aotearoa New Zealand’s payments future.

Formed in 2010 by the industry with support of the Reserve Bank, we govern the core payment systems and we work with the industry to lead open banking and the future direction of payments in Aotearoa. Today, the systems we manage transact over $7 trillion annually.

We are committed to a progressive self-governing industry that enables Aotearoa to have a world-class payments system. This drives our continuous push to facilitate strategic initiatives that bring the industry together and encourage market-led innovation.

Payments NZ is made up of an internal team, Participants, Members, a board of directors and shareholders.

Our Participants are financial institutions that have joined one or more of our three payment clearing systems so they can exchange payments directly with other Participants efficiently and securely.

Our Members are organisations from the payments ecosystem that have joined our membership programme to be actively involved in the ongoing development and strategic direction of the payments system in Aotearoa. We offer three levels of membership to interested organisations.

Our Board has 11 directors made up of an independent chair, two further independent directors and a director appointed from each shareholder organisation.

Our shareholders are ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Citibank, HSBC, Kiwibank, TSB Bank and Westpac. 

Payments NZ operates the API Centre. The API Centre was established in May 2019 as an industry standards implementation body for open banking in Aotearoa.

The API Council governs the work of the API Centre and is made up of 6 API Providers, 6 Third Party representatives and 3 independents, including the chair.

Payments NZ is a limited liability company.

For more information about the establishment of Payments NZ, a history of payments regulation in Aotearoa and how other payments regimes around the world are structured, please read our paper on the Evolution of payments regulation in New Zealand. 

What we do

The core functions of Payments NZ are:

1.  The development and management of the rules and standards that govern three core payment clearing systems in Aotearoa: 

• Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS),
• Consumer Electronic Clearing System (CECS),
• High Value Clearing System (HVCS)

These clearing systems cover the range of different payment methods used in Aotearoa. The rules and standards set out the requirements for how financial institutions process those different payment types. This enables standardisation for the way transactions are made between financial institutions and with their customers.

There was also a Paper Clearing System (PCS), which governed cheques. PCS was decommissioned after the last Participants ceased issuing and accepting cheques and resigned from the system on 31 August 2021.

2.  Encouraging and facilitating new Participants to join our payment clearing systems. 

We encourage organisations that are eligible to become direct settlement Participants in our clearing systems and we facilitate the application, testing and on-boarding process for new Participants.

3.  Facilitating the interoperability of payments between our Participants. 

We coordinate and facilitate projects and initiatives to continuously improve interoperability within our clearing systems and between our Participants.

4.  Promoting interoperable, innovative, safe, open and efficient payment systems.  

We do this by leading strategic industry initiatives, facilitating industry discussions and providing thought leadership on topical industry challenges. We also run strategic forums and industry events including The Hub, The Link for women in payments, and our premier biennial conference The Point. 

We set our work programme annually with a mix of strategic and operational projects and initiatives. 

We are committed to ensuring everyone has complete confidence in Aotearoa New Zealand’s payments system, now and into the future.