Breaking: Bud signs up New Zealand’s largest bank ANZ

CEO Ed Maslaveckas is leading the open banking charge Down Under.

Open banking provider Bud is heading to New Zealand to help the country’s biggest bank ANZ NZ automate more of its lending, AltFi can exclusively reveal.

Later today Bud will announce a strategic partnership with ANZ that will see the fintech’s aggregation and categorisation service adopted by the bank.

The deal is driven by new regulations in New Zealand pushing lenders to improve their affordability checks on borrowers, including breaking down income and expenses in detail.

With Bud, ANZ will be able to upload an applicant’s statement and use Bud’s automated system to break down the information and do what otherwise could be a very manual and laborious process.

“We’ve seen Open Banking start to have a significant impact on the credit market in the UK, so we’re obviously excited to be the first to roll out similar technology in New Zealand,” said Bud’s CEO Ed Maslaveckas.

“We’ve invested heavily in our intelligence capabilities over the last year, developing the granularity and accuracy that institutions need to shape these journeys and developing tools that allow us to quickly port that performance level to new markets.”

Given ANZ is one of Bud’s investors, the deal today isn’t that surprising, but it’s certainly a vote of confidence in the fintech’s ability to deploy its tech within a large banking organisation.

“Bud’s expertise with open banking technology in the UK market will benefit customers in New Zealand by streamlining lending processes and increasing transparency,” said ANZ chief information officer Mike Bullock.

“Importantly, the functionality Bud provides will also enable us to continue to meet our responsibilities as a responsible lender, without compromising customer experience.”

Last week Bud signed a partnership with UK fintech Dozens to create a unique try-before-you-signup experience using open banking data.

And in December ex-Mambu commercial director James Barker joined Bud as its new chief commercial officer, as revealed by AltFi.

As well as ANZ, Bud also has partnerships in place with several other banking giants, including HSBC and First Direct.