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Wealth aggregation and net worth

The opportunity

Most banking apps show a customer their bank balance. That's a fragment of their financial picture. For a typical NZ adult, the full picture is:

Asset Approximate NZ median (2026) Visible in most bank apps?
Transaction + savings accounts $8,000–$15,000 Yes
KiwiSaver balance $30,000–$80,000 (age-dependent) No
Home equity (if owner-occupier) $200,000–$400,000 No
Term deposits (own or other bank) Varies Own bank only
AU super (dual residents) A$20,000–$60,000 No

KiwiSaver is for many NZ customers the largest liquid-ish financial asset they own outside their home — but it's invisible in their bank app. Showing it (under consent) transforms the platform from "banking app" to "financial operating system."

The same logic applies in AU: superannuation balances dwarf bank account balances for most working Australians, but super is not visible in banking apps.

What we're building

Three linked capabilities:

Capability What it does
CAP-141 External asset aggregation Connect KiwiSaver/super under customer consent via Akahu (NZ) or direct provider API (AU). Daily refresh.
CAP-142 Net worth dashboard Unified view: bank accounts + loan positions + property equity + KiwiSaver/super, broken into liquidity tiers.
CAP-143 KiwiSaver/super insights Government match gap alert + PIR mismatch risk flag. Insight only — no financial advice.

Delivered by: - MOD-100 External asset connector (SD07 — data platform, Akahu integration) - MOD-101 Wealth intelligence engine (SD06 — Snowflake analytics)

Technology decision: ADR-041 — Akahu as NZ aggregation layer.

Integration path: Akahu (NZ)

Akahu is the NZ financial data aggregation API platform. It provides: - OAuth 2.0 customer consent flow (no screen scraping) - Structured API access to major NZ banks and KiwiSaver providers - A normalisation layer — provider differences are abstracted behind a consistent response schema - Growing provider coverage: all major KiwiSaver schemes are represented or in pipeline

NZ KiwiSaver coverage via Akahu (as at 2026): ANZ Investments, ASB KiwiSaver, Fisher Funds (including former Kiwi Wealth scheme, acquired 2022), Simplicity, Generate, Milford Asset Management, Booster, BNZ KiwiSaver, Westpac KiwiSaver.

Akahu is in production at multiple NZ fintechs (Sharesies, PocketSmith, Squirrel, others). The integration path is well-trodden.

What we do not use Akahu for: the bank's own accounts (we own that data), and anything requiring real-time transaction data (Akahu balance data has up to 15-minute lag for bank accounts, daily for KiwiSaver).

Integration path: AU superannuation

Australian CDR does not cover superannuation as at 2026. Options for AU super data:

Path Coverage Quality
Direct fund REST API AustralianSuper, REST Industry Super, Aware Super, Hostplus (accredited third parties) Good — structured JSON
Superannuation fund member portal feed Most large funds Variable — fund-by-fund negotiation
ATO SuperStream data (via ATO API) Contribution data only — not balances Limited

Phase 2 (AU super) will be implemented fund-by-fund, starting with the four largest funds by member count. The normalisation layer in MOD-100 means each new fund is a mapping addition, not a new integration.

The KiwiSaver health opportunity

Two specific, high-value insights that no existing bank provides:

Government member tax credit gap

The NZ government gives every KiwiSaver member up to $521.43 free money per year — but only if they contribute at least $1,042.86 in the KiwiSaver financial year (1 July – 30 June). Large numbers of members miss this, particularly: - Self-employed (no employer contributions) - Members on contribution holidays - Members contributing only the 3% minimum who earn less than ~$34,762/year (employer contributions alone don't hit the threshold)

We can calculate this from observable salary credit data. The alert is both genuinely useful and a strong engagement driver.

PIR mismatch (Prescribed Investor Rate)

Many NZ KiwiSaver members are on the wrong PIR. The three rates are 10.5%, 17.5%, 28% — based on income. A member on 17.5% whose income exceeds $48,000 is technically under-paying tax on investment income. A member on 28% whose income has dropped is over-paying.

We can infer the applicable PIR from salary credit history. Surfacing this as a risk flag (not advice) helps customers — and differentiates the platform.

FMA boundary: Both indicators are factual observations. They report what the data shows, not what the customer should do. No fund switching, provider, or contribution level is recommended. Legal review of display copy required before release.

Positioning

Without wealth aggregation With wealth aggregation
Smarter bank Customer's entire financial brain
Shows bank balance Shows true net worth
No KiwiSaver visibility Biggest retirement asset in view
Generic financial app Only app that tells you about the $521 government match you're missing

The KiwiSaver health insight in particular is a low-cost, high-value differentiator — it requires no financial advice licence, requires no product recommendation, and delivers concrete dollar value to the customer from data we already have access to under consent.

Implementation phases

Phase Scope Dependencies
Phase 1 NZ KiwiSaver via Akahu — balance, fund type, provider. Net worth dashboard. MOD-100, MOD-101
Phase 2 KiwiSaver health insights (MTC gap, PIR mismatch). Property equity in net worth. MOD-101 + property data from BG-015 modules
Phase 3 AU superannuation via direct fund APIs. MOD-100 AU extension
Phase 4 Held-away NZ bank accounts via Akahu (bank migration support). MOD-100 held-away scope

Design constraints

  • Not real-time. KiwiSaver is unit-priced daily (business days). The dashboard shows "as at [date]" for external assets. Do not poll more than once daily.
  • Not advice. The FMA advice boundary is real. Insights are observations — not recommendations to switch funds, change contribution rates, or choose providers. Legal review required for all display copy.
  • Consent-first. No external asset data is retrieved without explicit customer consent. Consent is revocable at any time with 24-hour data deletion.
  • Property equity is estimated. The bank does not have access to live property valuations. Customer-provided estimate minus secured loans. Label it clearly.
  • AU super is Phase 2. The integration path is more complex and fund-by-fund. Do not block Phase 1 on it.