Developing Māori Data Governance recommendations for the API Centre and Payments System

Ko te pae tawhiti whāia kia tata, ko te pae tata whakamaua kia tina. 

Seek out distant horizons and cherish those you attain. 

Who are Payments NZ, and what role do they play in the payments system within Aotearoa? 

Payments NZ govern the core payments systems within Aotearoa, enabling over $6 trillion in transactions to flow through the system every year. In addition, they lead open banking and the future direction of payments in Aotearoa. Open banking is the ability for customers to choose which third parties their financial data is shared with. It is intertwined with the upcoming Consumer Data Rights legislation that seeks to give people more control over how their data is accessed and shared. These future directions align closely with some of the rights and interests described in Māori data sovereignty.

Practical Māori data sovereignty and Māori data governance training to support Payments NZ 

Payments NZ knew that Māori data sovereignty rights were important, and that Māori data governance could help give effect to Māori data sovereignty, but they weren’t sure how to go about the finer details of implementation. Nicholson Consulting’s Māori data team was able to support Payments NZ on their journey.  

In May 2023, Nicholson Consulting presented a half day Māori data sovereignty and Māori data governance workshop which was attended by the entire Payments NZ leadership team. This covered: 

• The fundamentals of Māori data sovereignty and Māori data governance, including why these two concepts are important.  

• Lessons that the Māori data team can bring to the conversation because of their experiences.

It also provided the opportunity for Payments NZ to workshop some examples of where Payments NZ might look at implementing Māori data governance practices.  

The API-Centre, which co-designs open banking standards and protocols to ensure fast, secure, user-friendly data sharing for Aotearoa New Zealand, was chosen at the starting point to test out implementation of Māori data governance practices. 

The team at Nicholson were asked specifically to look at the API standards, which have close touch points to users and consent agreements. The process involved reviewing API specifications, security profiles, consultation feedback, and terms and conditions. In addition, interviews were held with Payments NZ staff, banks, and fintech companies to understand more about the system they operate in and where there might be opportunities to strengthen Māori data sovereignty rights and interests through Māori data governance approaches. 

The final product was a report that has a series of recommendations on Māori data governance implementation. Recommendations range from ideas that can be implemented relatively quickly, to more transformational ideas that will require conversations with communities, more system-wide buy-in, and time to implement.

The start of a haerenga to improve system equity 

Improving the way data is collected and used can have major benefits for communities. The payments system is an interesting eco-system with the majority of New Zealanders interacting with it. There are many potential opportunities for driving equity that could be explored such as more equitable loan lending, minimising illegal activities, understanding who is impacted by fraud and why, or looking at sharing data with community collectives to help inform their decision making. These ideas require further wānanga to understand what data communities need to inform their own self-determination and what they would do differently with the data. 

Payments NZ plans to explore some of the quick implementation guidance regarding developing key relationships, capability uplift and starting some of these conversations to get buy-in for change. Payments NZ and the team at Nicholson Consulting will be sharing these findings of the report with private banks, the central bank, and others in the payments system who have an interest. 

If you'd like to chat about the recommendations for the payments system, or how Māori data governance recommendations could be created in your industry, get in touch!