Herding Cats: Inside the API Centre with Jane-Renee Retimana

Hosts: Adrian Smith (CEO, BlinkPay) & Tim D’Shea (Head of Product, BlinkPay)

Music by Levgen Poltavskyi from Pixabay

In this episode of Open Banking Q&A with BlinkPay, we sit down with Jane-Renee Retimana, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer at Payments NZ (self-styled “Chief Cat Herder”), to explore the role of the API Centre in Aotearoa’s open banking journey.

Jane shares what it’s like to represent a broad and diverse membership – from major banks to nimble fintechs – and how the API Centre balances competing priorities, amplifies smaller voices, and works with regulators to create a fair, innovative, and future-ready payments ecosystem.

We cover:

• What the API Centre does – and how it sits within Payments NZ’s role as the governance body for New Zealand’s payment systems.
• How money really moves – the difference between high-value settlement systems and everyday retail interbank payments.
• Industry vs. regulation – New Zealand’s unique “coalition of the willing” approach and the evolution toward a hybrid, regulated regime.
• Challenges of collaboration – giving space to diverse voices, managing loud dissenting views, and why compromise and process matter.
• Interoperability and innovation – why efficiency and Lego-brick-like connectivity drive progress for both big and small players.
• Looking ahead – enduring consent, enriched data, Māori data governance, and how local innovation could leapfrog other jurisdictions.

From “road rash” lessons in governance to the art of compromise where “everyone’s a little bit unhappy,” Jane offers candid insights into what it takes to herd the cats of open banking – and why collaboration across industry, regulators, and innovators is the key to unlocking the next phase of payments in Aotearoa.

🎧 Tune in to hear behind-the-scenes perspectives from the API Centre and what success looks like for the future of open banking in New Zealand.

👉 blinkpay.co.nz