Payments moving to 365 days a year
15 Jun 2022
UPDATE AS AT 28 NOV 2022: The rollout date of 365-day payments has moved by a few weeks from 22 April 2023 to the industry’s contingency date of 26 May 2023, which has been updated in this article.
We’ve been working with the industry on a significant core payments system project to extend the processing of electronic payments to 365 days a year. This upcoming change will mean Kiwi will be able to receive as well as send payments between banks every day of the year. We’re pleased to announce that 365-day payments will start being available in Aotearoa New Zealand from 26 May 2023.
This change is a further evolution of Aotearoa’s payments system, enabling more flexibility for individuals and businesses to pay or be paid any day they want, including weekends and public holidays.
Payments in a changing world
We now live in a world that’s highly connected, always on and is underpinned by continuous economic activity. Customers expect fast, accessible, and uninterrupted services across all industries and sectors, regardless of the day of week or time of year.
Moving electronic payments (such as automatic payments, bill payments and direct credit payments) to 365 days a year will help meet these evolving customer expectations. A major payments system initiative like this forms one of the key building blocks for us to modernise payments across the ecosystem. It is part of a greater body of work we’re doing that sets out a future view of our payments ecosystem to 2030 and identifies what future capabilities are required so we can continue to meet the changing needs of Kiwi.
By moving to 365-day payments, commerce will no longer have to wait for a traditional business day to be completed. Businesses providing services over weekends and public holidays could see improved cashflow. Extending availability will also create opportunities for more innovation, allowing businesses to have the opportunity to look at ways to innovate within their business model.
Getting prepared for the change
We encourage all businesses and payment service providers to start thinking about what the implementation of 365-day payments could mean for their own organisations, internal processes and customers. In the meantime, participating banks will be working through their solutions and will get in touch with their customers to provide more detailed information as this change is rolled out.
Currently the banks who are part of this system change are: ANZ, ASB, Bank of China, BNZ, Citi, HSBC, ICBC, Kiwibank, TSB and Westpac. Collectively they offer financial services to most Kiwi.
For more information about this initiative, see our Q&As.