New Zealand’s Inland Revenue plots open banking roadmap, launches RFI – FinTech Futures: Fintech news 

The Inland Revenue (IR) government agency in New Zealand has issued a Request for Information (RFI) aimed at guiding the rise of open banking services in the country.Inland Revenue NZ released an open banking RFI on Monday“IR is seeking information on open banking and related technologies to help us develop a roadmap for engagement on potential services,” an overview of the RFI, released through the Government Electronic Tendering System (GETS) on Monday, states.“We are seeking to understand what services are currently available in the market, and what services are being developed or are anticipated to be developed,” the notice continues, adding that the IR “needs to keep pace” with the evolution of these services.The RFI is now open to participants, who have until 28 February to submit their contributions.The intended business outcomes of this move, as stated by IR, include a reduced risk of misdirected payments, ensuring that payments made from the IR land in the correct bank accounts.There is also a focus on reducing direct debit errors and the risk of fraud by using open banking to facilitate the confirmation of bank account ownership before payments are requested via direct debit.Another key outcome is to reduce payment reconciliation errors for incoming payments. By improving the accuracy of payment details, such as the correct tax type and period, open banking could assist customers in providing accurate information, thereby minimising the potential for errors.“We understand that there are market terms such as ‘Confirmation of Payee’ (CoP), ‘Payment Initiation’ and ‘Bill Presentation’ being discussed in different forums,” the RFI explains. “We are interested in the availability of these services as well as being open to other open banking services that may be beneficial to IR and for IR’s customers.”The country’s pursuit of open banking-led efficiency saw the New Zealand Bankers Association (NZBA) select UK fintech obconnect to build and manage a national CoP service in October, while the Bank of New Zealand sought to enhance its open banking functions by acquiring BlinkPay the following month.