Update to the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs
18 Apr 2018
UPDATE: Please see the response letter received from the Minister dated 23 April 2018 below.
Our CEO Steve Wiggins recently formally updated the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Hon Kris Faafoi on the significant progress the industry has made in advancing our Payments Direction strategic initiatives, our engagement efforts, and the role of Payments NZ in facilitating discussion to improve the transparency of merchant service and interchange fees.
The letter outlined industry progress, including:
- Successful industry-led cooperation has been fundamental to creating the world-class core payments system we have today.
- Through Payments Direction and our Management Committees we can expect to see important capability improvements to our core payments system over the next few years.
- We expect industry to endorse the implementation of two of our Payments Direction strategic opportunities by the end of 2018 – a shared API framework, and 365-day service availability for our SBI system.
- More granular fees reporting to merchants by card schemes and bank acquirers will improve the transparency and usefulness of information provided and assist with merchants’ decision making.
- Competitive forces will continue to deliver innovations that improve payment experiences.
We also talked about the high degree of communication and cooperation that exists amongst the industry, and Payments NZ’s leadership and facilitation role. We are looking forward to working with the Minister, his advisers and officials to ensure our progress to date and plans for the future remain in line with government expectations.
You can read our full letter and the Minister's response below.