Payments in New Zealand and Fiji: Geographically Close, Structurally Different

New Zealand and Fiji may sit within the same Pacific payment corridors, but the way money moves across each market differs drastically.

New Zealand is one of the world’s most banked economies, with 98% bank account ownership and a payment ecosystem still shaped by traditional banking infrastructure. Fiji operates through a more hybrid model, where remittances and mobile wallets play a central role in how consumers and businesses send and receive funds.

That contrast creates a surprising reality for cross-border payments. 

And for Money Transfer Operators (MTOs), Payment Service Providers (PSPs), banks, and global platforms operating across Oceania, it is shaping settlement speed, payout routing, compliance handling, and customer experience across the region.

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New Zealand’s banking-first payment environment

New Zealand combines high internet adoption with a well-established banking system built on traditional account-based payment infrastructure.

A highly banked market without domestic RTP infrastructure

New Zealand operates through a highly mature banking environment:

• 98% bank account ownership
• 96% internet penetration
• Payment activity is concentrated within traditional banking infrastructure
• Major banks, including ANZ, BNZ, Westpac, ASB, and Kiwibank, dominate domestic payment flows

Despite this maturity, domestic payment infrastructure still relies heavily on batch-based settlement processes rather than a fully deployed real-time payment rail. The government only announced the beginnings of a real-time payments system in late 2025. 

For domestic payments, these processes remain familiar and predictable. However, cross-border payment expectations centre around faster settlement, continuous availability, and real-time visibility. 

Where global businesses face friction

Correspondent banking flows into New Zealand can still involve multiple settlement windows, banking cut-off times, and limited payment visibility.

For PSPs, MTOs, and global platforms, this creates operational friction around payout predictability and customer experience, particularly when users expect near-instant cross-border transfers.

There is also what we call the “False Passenger” Entity Problem. Although Australia and New Zealand share close economic ties, payment providers still need to account for market-specific regulatory and operational requirements. Approaches designed primarily for the Australian market do not always translate directly to New Zealand.

How Thunes supports payouts into New Zealand

Thunes bypasses legacy network delays by partnering directly with a localised, licensed PSP player inside New Zealand. Instead of waiting days for individual payments, Thunes dispatches batch files 6 to 8 times daily during office hours. This creates a T+0, seamless, predictable payment sequence that functions as a “nearly real-time” experience, with connections to 25 banks across the market. 

The Network also supports high transaction ceilings of up to NZD 5,000,000, allowing MTOs, PSPs, and B2B platforms to support larger-value cross-border payments through the same infrastructure layer.

Fiji’s wallet-led payment ecosystem

Fiji’s payment environment developed very differently from New Zealand’s. It operates through a more wallet-first ecosystem, driven by remittance inflows, mobile connectivity, and hybrid financial access.

A remittance market shaped by wallets and banks

Remittances play a major role in Fiji’s economy, particularly across corridors connected to Australia, the United States, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. It processes $1.25 billion in inward remittances annually (driven by the tourism/hospitality industry and seasonal workers sending money home), making up 7.1% of Fiji’s GDP in 2024. 

Though bank account ownership stands at 63%, significantly lower than in New Zealand, mobile wallets have become an important channel for receiving and storing funds, with a 50/50 split between inbound funds going to wallets and bank accounts. According to the IMF, 51% of consumers use mobile wallets, namely those from providers such as M-Paisa and Digicel MyCash, placing them firmly alongside traditional banks in Fiji’s payment ecosystem.

Where payment expectations move faster

Fiji requires hyper-fast delivery for both consumer remittances and high-end tourism/resort business payments. That’s why many have turned to wallets, of which the Reserve Bank of Fiji currently approves mobile wallets to support C2C (consumer-to-consumer) and B2C (business-to-consumer) payment flows.

M-Paisa alone reaches around 780,000 users in a country with a population of under one million, highlighting how central mobile financial access has become.

For MTOs, PSPs, and platforms operating across Oceania, payout flexibility becomes critical. Funds may need to reach a mobile wallet instantly, settle into a bank account, or support tourism-related business payments with predictable FX conversion and payout visibility.

How Thunes supports payouts into Fiji

Thunes supports direct real-time payouts into Fiji through integrations with M-Paisa and Digicel MyCash.

Our Direct Global Network is also expanding direct bank connectivity through a new API integration with BSP, Fiji’s largest bank. This allows inbound funds to move directly into local bank accounts with real-time FX handling and reduced reliance on traditional correspondent banking flows.

For global payment providers, this creates a more flexible payout environment across Fiji’s bank and wallet ecosystem through a single integration layer.

What these markets reveal about cross-border payments in Oceania

New Zealand and Fiji highlight how cross-border payments operate across multiple financial systems at once, even within closely connected regional corridors.

In New Zealand, payment behaviour remains closely tied to traditional account-based banking rails, while in Fiji, payout flexibility matters more. Funds may need to reach a bank account, a mobile wallet, or users operating outside traditional banking infrastructure altogether.

For cross-border payment providers, it presents a regional interoperability challenge. 

Interoperability matters more across fragmented regional systems

Payment flows across Oceania now move between traditional bank accounts, mobile wallets, local banking networks, and different compliance environments.

That means a payment into Auckland may need to settle through traditional banking infrastructure, while a payment into Fiji may need to reach a mobile wallet instantly or support a tourism-related business payout through local bank connectivity.

The ability to support these corridors depends on interoperability and a payment solution that can operate across multiple payout environments simultaneously.

Infrastructure maturity doesn’t always mean faster payouts

New Zealand operates one of the region’s most mature banking systems, yet cross-border settlement still depends heavily on traditional batch-based processing, which can slow down payment flows. 

Fiji, despite its smaller economy and banking sector, already supports real-time wallet payouts and is expanding API-led bank connectivity. In some payout scenarios, funds can move faster through Fiji’s mobile and API infrastructure than through traditional banking flows into New Zealand.

This reflects a broader shift across cross-border payments, where direct integrations and local payout infrastructure increasingly shape payment speed and visibility.

One region can contain multiple payment behaviours

The contrast between New Zealand and Fiji also shows why regional payment strategies can’t rely on a single payout model.

Within the same Oceanian corridor, one market may operate primarily through bank accounts while another depends heavily on mobile wallets and hybrid financial access. There is also a growing number of global and local options, giving users a lot of choice and flexibility in their payment preferences. 

For payment providers, that creates operational complexity around payout routing, FX handling, settlement timing, and compliance management across neighbouring markets.

How Thunes supports cross-border payments across Oceania

Supporting payment flows across Oceania requires infrastructure that can operate across both models simultaneously: mature banking systems with legacy settlement behaviour, and mobile-first ecosystems built around real-time wallet delivery.

For example, a provider may need to support high-value bank transfers into New Zealand while also enabling real-time wallet delivery and bank payouts in Fiji through the same regional payment operation.

Thunes supports these cross-border flows through its Direct Global Network, which combines local payout connectivity, FX handling, treasury orchestration, and compliance infrastructure across various market models.

As well as integrations with payment banks and wallets, key capabilities include:

• SmartX Treasury Management System helps businesses manage liquidity and payout execution across multiple rails and currencies
• Fortress Compliance infrastructure supporting localised compliance handling across different regulatory environments
• Support for consumer remittances, business payouts, treasury flows, and platform disbursements through the same infrastructure layer

For PSPs, MTOs, banks, and platforms operating across the Pacific region, this creates a more unified way to support structurally different payment markets without relying on separate integrations, fragmented payout operations, or multiple regional providers.

Connecting payments across New Zealand and Fiji

New Zealand and Fiji demonstrate how differently payment infrastructure can develop across neighbouring markets.

In a wider context, it highlights that the challenge is no longer simply reaching a market. It is supporting the local ways money moves within each market, across banks, wallets, currencies, compliance environments, and settlement models.

As payment ecosystems across Oceania continue to diversify, interoperability is becoming the key to connecting all these payment flows together.

Through its Direct Global Network, Thunes serves as the interoperability layer, enabling PSPs, MTOs, banks, and platforms to support cross-border payments in both New Zealand and Fiji via a single API connection.

Looking to expand your payment capabilities into New Zealand or Fiji? Contact our experts to find out more.