Security

Connecting a bank account to anything deserves a straight answer about what happens next. Here is exactly what KiwiBudget can see, what it can never do, and how your data is kept apart from everyone else's.

We never see your banking password

You authorise a bank connection with your bank or with Akahu, New Zealand's open finance platform. Your banking login is never entered into KiwiBudget, and we never receive or store it.

Read only, always

A connection lets us read account balances and transactions. It cannot move money, make payments, open or close accounts, or change anything at your bank. There is no payment capability in KiwiBudget at all.

Two factor before any bank connection

Setting up or syncing a bank connection requires a second factor, either a passkey or a code from your authenticator app. That check runs on our servers, not just in the app, so it cannot be skipped by bypassing the interface.

Your access token never reaches your browser

The token that authorises reading your bank data is kept in a separate store that only our server can read. It is never sent to the app running on your phone or laptop, and it is never included in anything the browser can see.

Your data is separated at the database

Every table enforces row level security, so a request can only ever return rows belonging to the signed in account. It is not a filter applied by the app that could be forgotten; the database refuses to return anyone else's rows.

Deleting means deleting

Delete your account and we remove your data and revoke your bank consent at Akahu in the same action, so access is not left open on their side either. Unused connections are also switched off automatically over time.

Signing in

You can sign in with a passkey, which uses the Face ID, fingerprint or screen lock already on your device and means there is no password to guess or reuse. Authenticator app codes are supported as well. We can send you a notification when a new sign in happens on your account, so an unexpected one is something you find out about rather than discover later.

Sign in attempts are rate limited and protected against automated abuse, and traffic between your device and KiwiBudget is encrypted in transit.

Where your data lives

KiwiBudget runs on managed cloud infrastructure, and your data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Like most New Zealand software of this size, the servers themselves sit offshore rather than in New Zealand, so the Privacy Act 2020 obligations that apply to sending personal information overseas apply to us and we take them seriously.

AI features are optional and off unless you switch them on, and each one shows you what it sends to Anthropic, the company behind the Claude AI, before anything is sent. None of them ever sends your email address, banking login, account numbers or the name on your account. The privacy policy lists precisely what each feature sends and what you can turn off.

Which banks work

ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac, Kiwibank and The Co-operative Bank connect through Akahu. KiwiSaver providers can be connected for balance tracking. If your bank is not supported you can still use KiwiBudget by adding transactions yourself or uploading a statement.

How bank connections work in detail

Found something?

If you believe you have found a security issue, email security@kiwibudget.nz with enough detail to reproduce it. You will get a reply from a person, we will not take legal action against anyone reporting in good faith, and we will tell you when it is fixed.