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Informist, Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – India and New Zealand have committed to collaborate and develop an interoperable fast payment system for real-time cross-border remittances and merchant payments under the recently concluded Free Trade Agreement, the finance ministry said Tuesday. While India already has a fully evolved instant payment system, the Unified Payment Interface, managed by National Payments Corp of India, New Zealand is yet to fully implement a universal, second-by-second real-time payments network. 

 

With Wellington's $20-billion foreign direct investment commitment under the trade deal, New Delhi expects expansion in India's financial services presence in New Zealand and vice versa, especially after the Indian government allowed 100?I in the insurance sector. Currently, Bank of Baroda and Bank of India have subsidiary operations in New Zealand with a combined total of four branches. New Zealand, on the other hand, has no banking or insurance presence in India. 

 

The provisions under the trade deal cushion Indian financial institutions from arbitrary or discriminatory credit assessment practices in the New Zealand market. "This FTA, by establishing clear market access commitments, regulatory transparency and bilateral cooperation frameworks, will facilitate increased bilateral investment, institutional presence and services delivery," the finance ministry said in a release. 

 

Both nations have also pledged to strengthen collaboration in financial services innovation. The agreement includes specific provisions for learning from each other's regulatory sandbox and digital sandbox frameworks for cross-border applications. But the two sides recognise each other's right to maintain legislative and regulatory requirements concerning the transfer, processing and storage of financial information, and aim to facilitate financial service suppliers to establish cross-border digital operations while ensuring complete regulatory control over data sovereignty and consumer privacy protections.

 

Besides financial services, India has secured commitments from New Zealand for collaboration in several other high-value sectors, including information technology and IT-enabled services, professional services, education, tourism, construction and other business services. According to the government, this trade deal delivers New Zealand's best and most ambitious services offer in any of its FTAs to date. 

 

The FTA has opened doors to Indian professionals--from engineering, IT, healthcare, education, and construction, among others--in New Zealand through a new temporary employment entry visa pathway with a quota of 5,000 visas at any given time and a stay of up to three years. Bilateral services trade between India and New Zealand was $1.24 billion in 2024, according to the government.  End

 

US$1 = INR 89.70

 

Reported by Krity Ambey

Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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