Changes to payment processing.
Earlier this year, New Zealand banks announced that they’d now be processing domestic online payments 7-days a week, 365-days a year. In addition to 7-day processing, the rules around processing of Direct Debits have also changed.
Potential impacts to customers.
Customers' online payments, such as Automatic Payments and Direct Debits are now processed on the day they’re due, including non-business days such as weekends and public holidays.
In the past, some banks may have allowed an account to go into overdraft to process a Direct Debit however for many banks, this is no longer the case. If they don’t have sufficient funds in their account on the day their insurance premium is due, the payment won’t go through, and their cover may be affected.
We’ll be sending an email to all customers, and we encourage you to also discuss this with them, including covering the options available to them around aligning incoming funds with their outgoing bills.
A copy of the email can be found below.
If you have any questions, please speak to your BM.
View the customer letter here.