Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister, Andrew Bayly says proposed new legislation will pave the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity.
“Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New Zealand dead last for regulation of digital markets,” said the Minister.
Mr Bayly said the Customer and Product Data Bill, which had its first reading today, is an important step for improving the regulation of digital markets.
“It is all about giving more choice to consumers and creating a more competitive environment to do business in,” he said.
“The Bill lays the foundation for ‘open banking’ which will make it easier for innovative start-ups to compete with traditional banks. Greater choice for Kiwi customers should lead to more competition and potentially lower prices.
“Greater competition also encourages investment in new products and services. For example, Australian customers of Sharesies, a New Zealand founded investment app, can give permission to Sharesies to plug into their bank account and round up every transaction to a pre-selected amount and invest the difference.
“This micro approach to investing helps customers automatically build up savings and has far reaching benefits for the economy but is not currently possible in New Zealand without a consumer data right which enables banks to securely share information with third parties.
“Meanwhile ‘open electricity’ has the potential to enable considerable customer savings by making it easier for households to measure their power use, compare pricing and swap providers.”
New Zealand currently has no mandatory data standards. The Bill aims to improve data privacy standards and is supported by the Privacy Commissioner, said Minister Bayly.
“It is entirely opt-in, meaning customers will have to give their explicit consent for their data to be shared.”
“Australia, the UK, and the EU all have, or will soon have, a consumer data regime like what is proposed by this Bill. It is time we caught up with the rest of the world and harnessed the benefits of the modern, digital economy,” he said.
