New Zealand Bankers Association selects UK fintech obconnect to power the country’s CoP ecosystem
The New Zealand Bankers Association (NZBA) has selected UK-based open banking fintech obconnect to “build and manage” the country’s Confirmation of Payee (CoP) ecosystem.
NZBA partners obconnect to roll-out CoP service across the country
The NZBA says retail banks in the country – namely ANZ, ASB, Bank of China, BNZ, CCB, The Co-operative Bank, Heartland Bank, ICBC, Kiwibank, Rabobank, SBS Bank, TSB, and Westpac – will begin rolling out the new CoP service powered by obconnect “by the end of November this year”.
The association adds that the service will be rolled out in phases “to ensure proper testing and customer satisfaction”, with NZBA chief executive Roger Beaumont saying that member banks “are working to have the service available across all online personal banking channels by Easter 2025”.
“Banks have been working together at pace to start making the service available before the end of the year. Due to the size and complexity of payments services the banks offer, some banks are adopting a phased approach to ensure thorough user testing and customer understanding,” says Beaumont.
CoP enables bank customers to check that the name and account details of a payee match before the money is sent to ensure that payments are being made to the correct person or business.
The NZBA says the service “will provide bank customers with an extra level of reassurance when making domestic payments from one bank account to another”.
Through the partnership, obconnect says it will “play a critical role in ensuring the integrity of payments and preventing fraud” in the country, with its tech “enabling secure and efficient financial data sharing across the nation’s banking landscape”.
Obconnect secured a £10.5 million investment from UK paytech PayPoint this summer, which boosted PayPoint’s ownership stake in the fintech to 59.3%.
