Modernising Payments together: trust, resilience and system design for the next decade

Payments are no longer just transactions. They are critical infrastructure that enables commerce, innovation and economic growth.

In this episode of Modernising Payments Together, industry leaders explore the growing role payments play in supporting Aotearoa New Zealand's digital economy and what will shape the next generation of payments.

The discussion explores trends shaping payments ecosystems around the world, including digital identity, embedded finance, artificial intelligence and evolving customer expectations. It also considers how Aotearoa New Zealand can build on its existing strengths, including trust, collaboration and innovation, to support better outcomes for consumers, businesses and communities.

As technology reshapes how people and businesses interact, payments are becoming increasingly integrated into digital experiences.

The conversation highlights why system-wide thinking, collaboration and strong foundations will be critical to the next phase of economic growth and digital transformation.

The future of payments will not be defined by technology alone. It will be defined by the outcomes achieved through trust, resilience, innovation and collaboration across the ecosystem.

Open banking has moved from concept to reality, creating new opportunities for competition, innovation and customer choice. With a more digitally connected and automated payments ecosystem, governance becomes more important and helps ensure clear rules and expectations, accountability and oversight, and safe, scalable innovation.

In this episode of the Payments NZ Podcast, industry leaders discuss how open banking is reshaping the payments landscape, why governance as another unsung hero, and what is required to support successful adoption across Aotearoa New Zealand.

The conversation explores the role of APIs, common standards and industry coordination in creating a secure and interoperable ecosystem. It also examines how governance and coordination need to evolve as AI and automation become more embedded in critical systems.

Every payment relies on something that cannot be seen: trust.

In this episode of the Payments NZ Podcast, Steve Wiggins explores why trust has become critical infrastructure in a digital economy and what it takes to maintain confidence in an increasingly connected payments environment.

The conversation looks at the foundations that support trust, including resilience, interoperability, governance and shared standards. It also examines emerging challenges such as fraud, digital identity, cybersecurity and the growing complexity of digital interactions.

As payments become faster and more embedded in everyday experiences, maintaining trust becomes even more important. Without trust, innovation cannot scale and participation cannot grow.

This discussion explores why trust remains one of the most important ingredients in a modern payments system and why it requires ongoing collaboration across the ecosystem.

The demand for faster payments continues to grow, but delivering meaningful progress requires more than speed alone.

In this episode of the Payments NZ podcast, Payments NZ Chief Executive Steve Wiggins explores how Aotearoa New Zealand's payments ecosystem is evolving to meet changing customer expectations while maintaining the trust, resilience and interoperability that underpin the system.

The conversation examines the realities of modernising shared infrastructure, the role of industry coordination, and why progress is often determined by what can be delivered safely and sustainably at scale.

As new technologies emerge and competition increases, the challenge is balancing innovation with stability. That means ensuring the payments system remains accessible, resilient and capable of supporting future growth.

The discussion highlights why long-term progress depends not only on technology, but also on collaboration across the ecosystem.

For years, payments modernisation was defined by faster, cheaper and more transparent transactions. Today, those are baseline expectations.

According to Payments NZ Chief Executive Steve Wiggins, the bigger challenge is how to build a payments system that remains trusted, resilient and able to adapt as technology, risks and customer expectations continue to evolve.

In the first episode of Payments NZ's new podcast series, Payments NZ General Manager Strategy Chad Haighmark sits down with Steve, international payments commentator Dave Birch, and digital identity expert Victoria Richardson to explore how thinking about payments modernisation is changing.

Their conversation explores why payments are increasingly being viewed as critical infrastructure, why resilience matters as much as speed, and how trust, interoperability and coordination help create systems that can evolve with confidence.

The discussion also examines the growing importance of digital identity, governance and system-wide thinking as payments become more connected, automated and embedded in the wider digital economy.

For Steve, the message is clear: the future of payments is not simply about moving faster. It is about building systems that are trusted, adaptable and designed to support long-term innovation and resilience.