%201.webp)
Westpac NZ has introduced automatic income and expense categorisation for customers applying for individual personal loans, using technology from open finance provider Akahu.
The change applies to personal loan applications made through Westpac One online banking. It combines transaction data from a customer's Westpac accounts with uploaded statements from other financial providers, then categorises the transactions together to give a single view of the applicant's finances.
Applicants must still review the income and expense categories and amounts before submitting a loan request, and can edit or add information where needed. Previously, customers had to enter and categorise the information themselves.
Westpac says the updated system has improved average application times for individual personal loans. Customers can access the functionality in the current version of Westpac One.
The move adds another use case for open banking in New Zealand's retail banking market, where lenders and fintechs are starting to apply regulated data-sharing tools to customer-facing products. Akahu, a New Zealand-based provider, is supplying the categorisation service for Westpac.
Russell Jones, Chief Data, Digital & AI Officer at Westpac NZ, linked the launch to the bank's wider work on digital lending and open banking.
"We want to deliver innovative banking tools that reduce friction for people. In the next year, Westpac customers will be able to use the open banking framework to apply for other types of lending, including credit cards, without needing to upload multiple documents. If their application meets eligibility requirements, they may be able to access the money in under one hour," Jones said.
Open banking use
Open banking in New Zealand has gathered pace since the regulated system went live in December 2025. The framework allows customers to share account information securely through application programming interfaces, or APIs, instead of relying on manual document handling.
Akahu Co-Founder Josh Daniell said the latest deployment showed banks were moving beyond simply making open banking available and were beginning to use it within their own services.
"It's great to now be at a point where banks are using open banking functionality in their own services and experiences, and we're pumped to see Westpac, as one of New Zealand's largest banks, leading the charge. This is an example of the innovation and competition benefits that the new regulated open banking system is intended to deliver," Daniell said.
He also gave an update on early market adoption.
"The regulated open banking system went live in December 2025, and customer uptake in the first year has been remarkably strong. We're already facilitating regulated open banking services for more than 230 products and organisations, including government entities and household-name companies that have seen the opportunities and acted quickly," Daniell said.
Westpac says customer use of open banking tools has risen sharply. Jones said users shared account information securely through APIs more than 2 million times last month, a 46% increase on the previous month.
He added that the number of customers using open banking had increased more than sixfold over the past year, alongside wider use of account-to-account payment and data-sharing services.
"It's great to see increasing numbers of New Zealanders using the open banking framework to make safe and secure payments. In the past year, we've seen user numbers of open banking increase more than sixfold, with more people adopting it every month.
"We're also very supportive of MBIE assuming responsibility for the management and further development of open banking standards, as well as more broadly of open data standards. The continued rollout of open banking functionality will deliver positive outcomes for consumers and businesses alike, and we look forward to working with MBIE and the wider industry to achieve this."
Existing ties
The latest partnership expansion follows an earlier project between the two companies on transaction enrichment. That service lets Westpac customers click into transactions in online banking or the bank's app to see extra merchant details such as a business name, location and logo.
Jones said adoption of that service had been substantial since launch.
"In the 12 months since we introduced transaction enrichment, more than 850,000 customers have used their phone banking app to access the details of nearly 26 million transactions," Jones said.
"It's great to be continuing our partnership with Akahu to simplify banking for our customers. They're an innovative New Zealand company and we're pleased to be working with them.
"Harnessing data and automation to deliver enriched banking experiences for our customers is a focus for us, and we're excited about the value still to come."