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July 7, 2025 4 mins

Belief changes to child banking requirements will affect teens the most. 

The Government's making it easier to sign children up for a bank account, saying the current laws are unnecessarily difficult, in an attempt to prevent serious crime.  

It's one of the first steps in Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee's revamped anti money-laundering regime.   

MyMahi founder Jeff King told Andrew Dickens New Zealand would be in a good place if all young people had a bank account. 

He says those aged 15-to-16 are looking for their first part-time job and need an account. 

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Changes to the Anti Money Laundering Act will make it
easier for parents to open bank accounts for the kids. Now,
adults and children don't have to verify their address with
opening a new account at a local branch. Jeff King
is the founder of my MOHI. This is a platform
to support children with banking education and it joins me.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Good morning to you, Jeff. Thank you for joining us today.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Good morning, thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Was it a bit of overkill to crackdown on kids
having banking?

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, I'm a little un sure. There's it's a little
scant on detail at the moment, but I think anything
that puts a focus on youth banking and the issues
around it, I think it's got to be a good thing.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
Why were children's banking rules under the Anti Money Laundering Lor?
Do you know?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
No, I've got an idea. And the interesting thing is,
you know, you think back to you know, maybe twenty
thirty years ago in New Zealand used to be so
good at youth banking. Every kid in New Zealand had
a bank account and all the rest of it. I
don't know whether you remember it, but in my it
was the postbook, et cetera, and everyone had had an account,
and there was a report that came out from the

(01:07):
Reserve Bank not so long ago into basic bank accounts
and it talked about that as a factor, whereas today
it's quite a different story. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Absolutely, Look that I had a bank account from five
with the ASB. I also had a little plastic cash
and you know, think to put MC coins in as well.
And you know what, I'm still banking with the ASB
with the same bank account number that I have from
those days.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
So yeah, and a lot of people say that that's
exactly right, But we've lost that tradition in New Zealand
and I think if anything, you know, we did a
survey two years ago that showed our audience within the
schools that we had, you know, thirty percent of young
people didn't have an account.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
So has this been something people have been calling for?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah, it has, and that's sort of the reason we're
actually we ended up down this rabbit hole because schools
reached out to us. We have a digital idea within
my he think of a school id, like on a
plastic card, but you know, one that students can use
on their phone. And after we'd created that, we've got
a bit of momentum with that, schools were starting to
contact us to say, surely, you know, can you get

(02:13):
into banking now? Can you help us use the idea
card and mamahi to set up a bank account? And
we thought, oh yeah, how hard can that be? Well goodness,
three years later it was still battling on.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
You live in a country that loves bureaucracy, you know
what I mean. But anyway, look, there are there any
other sectors of our society that could do with a
rationalization of these money laundering rules and access to a
bank account?

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Yeah, like I think that, you know, there's conversations and
there was a submission about two weeks ago to the
Reserve Bank around basic bank accounts and I'm assuming as
part of that the changes around that basic bank account
the aml CFT laws will be changed. But I think,
you know, from looking at it from our space, obviously
we work with schools and particularly teenagers. You know, they

(02:59):
are probably the large group in the country and that
will impact them the most. And the idea is if
all young people had a bank account and left school
with a bank account, I think New Zealand would be
in a pretty good place, you know, particularly you look
at young people fifteen sixteen looking to get their first
part time jobs, they need an account, and at the moment,

(03:20):
it's a really it's a difficult process to go to.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
How about homeless people or people just out of prison.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
Yeah, that's right, and I think there's some work being
done around that as well. But I think when you
look at the statistics and look at the percentage, I
think the greatest percentages is around youth banking, and I
think the other one looking at this amendment that's been
made in the release that came out yesterday, you know,

(03:47):
in that Reserve Bank report that I mentioned earlier, you know,
they said fifty percent of branches had closed in the
last ten years. And if that's what it's looking like,
what is banking and to look like in another five
over ten years? It's not going to be in branch
And I think the thing for us is we would
like to see that there. You know, although this is
a step in the good, in the right direction, we'd

(04:09):
like to see more of a focus on digital. How
do you digitally on board? You know, how do how
do we make that the norm?

Speaker 1 (04:16):
When was the last time I ever used cash? You know,
when we are always using the cards. The banking is critical,
so I thank you so much. Jeff King, he is
the founder of my Mahi. For more from Early Edition
with Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 2 (04:29):
Listen live to news Talks it be from five am weekdays,
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