The New Zealand payments ecosystem has seen considerable disruption in the last decade with new technologies, innovations and new industry players changing the way we pay.

In particular, contactless payments has laid the foundation for mobile payments with consumers increasingly looking to ditch their cards and wallets in favour of digital wallets or mobile payment apps.

The financial services industry has always connected customers by converting one person’s savings into another’s loan.  However, technology is enabling customers to connect directly without the need for financial intermediaries. While disruption has been slow to impact financial services, this is now rapidly changing. Disruption, enabled by technology, is removing traditional barriers to entry and enabling new entrants to take on financial services firms by unbundling their product suite and offering superior products and customer experiences.

Payments has emerged as one of the key areas of disruption with the shift from physical to electronic payments seeing an ever-expanding range of payment methods replacing cash. From mobile banking and contactless cards, to phone payments and bespoke apps, the payment landscape is undergoing a quiet revolution.

Within this context, Venture Insights conducted a short survey on the current usage of mobile banking and payment apps in New Zealand. In this report, we discuss the results of the survey and its implications for the payments ecosystem in New Zealand.