From 30 May, New Zealand’s four major banks - ANZ, ASB, BNZ and Westpac - must offer the secure payment service - although some already have it in place.
It allows customers to give a third party (such as an online retailer) permission to connect to their banking information, meaning there is no need to enter credit or debit card details to make a purchase.
Open banking can be used both on retailers’ websites and on their mobile app, if they have one
It is similar. Not sure about GDPR but in NZ, you can only use data for what it’s collected for but you just ask for consent at the point of collection, and state your intent as using the information to assess suitability for insurance (or whatever), then you have met the requirements.
I think the idea is in future you could get cheaper life or health insurance if you agree to let the insurance company scan your records to check how much fast food you eat or whatever. It’s not feasible today as you’d have to have staff processing it which negates the cost saving, but in a future world maybe it could be a thing.
For mortgages, they definitely check your bank statements after the new rules against loan sharks came in (a couple of years ago), but if you are borrowing from a bank you’re with then they aready have that info.
I think life insurance is already pretty grabby with data, behind the scenes. We had a ton of data on some high value life policies we’d bought - down to records of all doctors visits. And even for lower value policies they can currently just ask you the important actuarial questions (e.g. are you a poor obese guy who smokes, rides a motorcycle & lives alone) and then deny the payout if you lied.
Given how disgustingly evil the US health insurance system is, my hope is that NZ resists the temptation to go there. I don’t have health insurance since moving back to NZ and it’s been fine. All the things I was told by the doctor “go private or the wait will be too long” turned out to have reasonable waits after all.