New Zealand's leading Open Banking fintech, Akahu, has joined Mastercard's Start Path global accelerator program. Open Banking infrastructure has been foundational to loyalty advances in both the UK and Australia. Westpac New Zealand's venture capital arm, Red Bird Ventures, invested $900,000 in Akahu last October and $2 million in 2020. Westpac is the only major New Zealand bank issuing MasterCard payment cards (ANZ, ASB Bank, Bank of New Zealand and Kiwibank all issue Visa).