How we protect you

24/7 transaction monitoring

Our dedicated customer protection team monitors transactions and card activity around the clock – 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

If we notice unusual spending on your card, we'll try to contact you to confirm the transactions. If we can't get in touch with you and we believe there's a high chance of fraud, we may temporarily block your card to stop further transactions until we can speak to you.

Even with these measures in place, fraud can sometimes still occur. It’s important to monitor your banking activity and let us know immediately if you see something that doesn’t look right.

The customer protection team also protects you by:

• Monitoring fraud trends affecting the banking industry.
• Supporting customers who’ve been impacted by fraud and scams and working closely with New Zealand Police to help ensure offenders are held accountable.
• Providing advice to customers who have security and fraud concerns.

Digital certificates

We use digital certificates that verify that you're connected to our official online banking website. These certificates also confirm that all communication between you and Kiwibank is encrypted and secure. Encryption is a mathematical method of coding information.

Extra layers of security for your accounts & transactions

Strong passwords help to protect your accounts, but they're not always enough to keep out attackers. We've built extra layers of security to double-check that it's you logging in or making a transaction in internet banking or our mobile app, like multi-factor authentication (MFA). This includes things like:

• Biometric login (face ID or fingerprint)
• SMS one-time codes
• 3D Secure (Verified by Visa) for some online card payments.

Internet banking guarantee

If you've been the victim of unauthorised activity on your accounts within our internet banking or mobile app, we'll reimburse any money you've lost as long as you’ve complied with our general terms and conditions, haven’t acted dishonestly or negligently and have taken reasonable steps to protect your banking.

Confirmation of Payee

Confirmation of Payee checks if the account owner name matches the account number of the person or business you're paying. This helps ensure you're paying the right person or business and adds an extra layer of protection against scams and fraud. If the check returns 'Not a match', it's important to verify the payee's details and identity. Proceeding with a payment could result in sending money to the wrong place, which may not be recoverable.

The Confirmation of Payee service applies to payments between New Zealand banks when using our mobile app or internet banking. It isn't available for international payments, business-to-business transactions, phone payments and in-branch transfers.

Other online banking features

• Temporary card blocks - If you've noticed any suspicious transactions or misplaced your card, you can put a temporary block on cards using the mobile app or internet banking.
• Locking access to your online banking - If your online banking password is entered incorrectly three times, access to your online banking will be blocked. This prevents anyone from making multiple attempts to guess your password. To unblock your account you'll need to reset your password.
• No caching on our online banking platforms - This means that other people can't use your computer to view your bank account details by selecting the browser back button.

Industry partnerships

• Netcraft - We work with Netcraft to have fake websites shut down as quickly as possible. Netcraft are world leaders in online fraud prevention and protect millions of consumers around the world from phishing, malware, and other types of online attacks.
• Financial Markets Authority (FMA) - FMA is New Zealand's financial regulator. We work closely to share information about current financial scams and threats. Our customer protection team regularly report to FMA on cyber security for ongoing maintenance and improvement.
• CERTNZ - CERTNZ are part of the government's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). We collaborate on online security education and regularly report on a wide range of online security measures.
• IDCare - IDCare is the national identity and cyber support service for Australia and New Zealand. They offer expert guidance on how to respond to data breaches, scams, identity theft, and cyber security issues.