Westpac has become the first New Zealand bank accredited to issue digital identity credentials, starting with a verified proof of bank account that business customers can carry in the government’s Govt.nz app wallet and show to buyers. RNZ reported the approval on 17 September 2026, saying the accreditation was issued under the Digital Identity Services Trust Framework, the government scheme that sets privacy, security and consent rules for anyone who wants to issue or check digital IDs.
The first product is aimed squarely at one of the most common scams in the country, the fake bank account number. When someone pays a large sum to a business, a builder, a car dealer or a tradesperson, they usually rely on an invoice, an email or a text message to tell them where to send the money. Scammers who get into an email chain can quietly swap the account number. A bank-issued credential gives the buyer a way to check the account belongs to the business they think they are dealing with.
Westpac NZ chief data, digital and AI officer Russell Jones said the change removes much of the fiddly and risky paperwork that businesses now use to prove their details. “This means businesses don’t need to download a bank statement, redact information by hand or send documents using less secure methods such as email – saving them time and reducing the risk of fraud and scams,” he told RNZ.
Jones used a car sale to explain how it works. A dealer who banks with Westpac first downloads the Govt.nz app and sets up its wallet. The dealer then logs in to Westpac One Business, picks an account and generates a QR code. Scanning that code with the wallet and entering a code sent by text message puts a Westpac Business Bank Account credential on the phone. The credential lasts 72 hours, and the dealer can show it to the buyer as proof the account is genuine before any money changes hands.
The short life of the credential is deliberate. It is designed for a single deal or a short run of transactions rather than as a permanent badge, which limits the damage if a phone is lost or a credential is shared more widely than intended.
Westpac says it is only the third organisation to reach accreditation under the framework. The first was NEC New Zealand, which the Department of Internal Affairs announced on 21 January 2026 as the first accredited Trust Framework provider, with four of its identity services approved, including online document checks, biometric matching and liveness detection. “We’ve invested heavily to become the first bank and only the third organisation to reach this milestone because we’re keen to help lead the rollout,” Jones told RNZ.
The bank’s move comes as the government’s digital wallet is still filling up. In March 2026 Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins announced the wallet would be added to the Govt.nz app, with the Kiwi Access Card, the proof-of-age card formerly known as the 18+ Card, lined up as the first accredited credential, 1News reported at the time. Using that digital card at bars depends on changes to the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act that add accredited digital credentials to the list of accepted proof-of-age documents. The government’s own Govt.nz wallet page says credentials are expected to be available in the wallet from October 2026, and that using the app is voluntary.
For now Westpac’s credential is limited to business customers. Jones said the plan is to extend digital ID to retail customers in future, and that shoppers could eventually find supermarket checkouts able to confirm they are over 18 using a digital ID. He also pointed to the frustration of juggling separate logins for councils, utilities and government agencies.
“Wouldn’t it be great if every government department would work with agreed credentials? Then you wouldn’t need to have 20 logons to log on to various different things,” he said.
Jones acknowledged that talk about digital identity has run for years without much reaching ordinary people. “We, along with the rest of the industry, for years have been talking about digital identity and there has been some really good work done and continues to be done building on things like RealMe,” he said. RealMe is the government login and verified identity service many New Zealanders already use to reach online government services.
The bigger question is whether enough businesses will bother to check the credentials. A digital ID is only useful if the person on the other side of the counter or the sale can read and trust it. Jones was frank about that. “At the same time, digital ID will only succeed if there’s large scale adoption of credential verification,” he said, adding that it would take banking, hospitality and telecommunications working with local and central government to make it part of everyday life.
That is where the real test lies. Westpac is one of the country’s big four Australian-owned banks, so its business customer base gives the wallet a meaningful early user group. But competing banks have not yet announced accreditation, and a buyer checking a dealer’s account will need to know the credential exists and how to ask for it. Privacy will also matter. The trust framework is built around the idea that people choose what they share and with whom, and Jones said the bank knows “trust and control are very important to New Zealanders when sharing personal information online.”
For small businesses that regularly field nervous calls from customers asking whether a bank account number is real, a phone-based proof could save time and lost sales. For buyers worried about invoice fraud, it offers one more check before hitting the pay button. Whether it becomes as ordinary as a contactless card payment depends on how quickly the rest of the banking system, and the businesses that take payments, follow Westpac’s lead.
Would you use a digital ID on your phone to prove who you are or to check a business’s bank account before paying? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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