So, who is Akahu?
Akahu is the leader of the pack in open banking in New Zealand. With the recent announcement that open banking is on the horizon in NZ, providers like Akahu are at the epicentre who provide more access to financial information to people like you.
Akahu allows users to gain more insight into their financial information and also grant access of that information to third parties, like BudgetBuddie.
We understand, sharing your account details with someone can be a little daunting.
That’s why we use Akahu, they don’t store your financial information and they’re proven to be fully secure. With 256-bit bank grade encryption you can be rest assured that your information is being protected at all costs.
All connections with Akahu are done with your consent and option to revoke that consent and connection at any time that you choose. This will mean that data won’t pull through into BudgetBuddie.
Read more about Akahu here.
What is open banking?
Open banking is a term that's relatively fresh to New Zealanders, that’s because it’s never been something available to us in the past. Open banking is gaining global recognition as it helps integrate new financial service providers into the financial ecosystem, making it more sustainable, efficient, agile and innovative.
Open banking is the concept that as a consumer we can choose to connect our bank accounts to third party products like BudgetBuddie.
A good example of that is Xero, where their customers grant consent for Xero to connect to their bank accounts to automatically pull through their information to help them manage their businesses finances, instead of the customer having to enter in all of those details manually.
Because open banking is so new, it’s currently unregulated. But, this is on the horizon with what’s referred to as a CDR (Consumer data rights), this is where users will begin to gain access to their data more freely.
The CDR is first being explored with banks in New Zealand who will need to meet a range of obligations in order to provide open banking to their customers.
Having open banking available means that Kiwis can shop around for better deals with other banks. For example, you could use apps like BudgetBuddie to see if you could be saving more through a better savings return rate with another bank, or easily switch your mortgage if you see another bank has a better interest rate that could save you money.
You can read & watch more about open banking is here: https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/11/10/government-to-introduce-open-banking-to-increase-competition/
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Final words
Thanks for reading, if you have any feedback or questions on what you've seen so far, feel free to get in touch using our contact form or alternatively give us a bell at hello@budgetbuddie.co.nz
Disclaimer
This blog or any other information provided by BudgetBuddie is not financial advice. If you're needing financial advice please get in touch with a licensed financial advisor or professional.
