Akahu
What is the Relationship and Why?
CommUnity has partnered with Akahu to provide secure access to transactional data directly from your New Zealand bank accounts.
Akahu is New Zealand’s open finance platform. It is also a New Zealand company which employs local staff and is part-owned by Westpac New Zealand. For consumers, Akahu puts you in control of your personal data. Akahu makes it simple to access data and to share that data with trusted third parties like CommUnity.
If you choose to connect your account(s) to CommUnity, you can manage those connections by visiting my.akahu.nz
The current list of banks that CommUnity members can link accounts with are:
ASB
Westpac
Kiwibank
Heartland
TSB
ANZ
The Co-operative Bank
Latitude Financial Services (GEM Visa)
Rabobank Agri
To find out more about Akahu click here
Note: We are looking to add BNZ to the above list shortly once Akahu has an agreement in place.
CommUnity and Akahu
When you are progressing through the CommUnity ‘linking bank account’ verification process, you are (optionally) redirected to Akahu and are asked to connect your bank account(s).
To connect a bank account or multiple accounts, each member goes through a one-time authentication and consent process via Akahu. Once you successfully connect to your bank, Akahu lists the available accounts that you can select to link with your CommUnity Member account. Your bank username and password are never stored by Akahu or us. Once you have selected the chosen accounts, you will be redirected back to CommUnity and your selected accounts will be displayed with a green ‘linked’ tab next to each account. It is that simple! No more loyalty cards, scanning of codes in-store, or multiple apps or programs to record your purchases. You simply pay the way you normally pay, and CommUnity does the rest automatically.
CommUnity uses transaction data from your connected accounts to automatically identify purchases made at CommUnity Merchants. This enables us to identify as much qualifying spend as possible, and maximise your contribution back to your community.
Please note: Connecting an account via Akahu may trigger an automatic message from your bank that you may receive as a txt or email. Don’t worry, as this is part of the high level security measures put in place to protect you when completing the linking process as it is a one-time authorisation you enable CommUnity (via Akahu) to recognise your transactions from your secure CommUnity member account.
When you log in, you will see a dashboard which shows funds raised from your spending at CommUnity Merchants which goes towards your chosen CommUnity Groups.
By default, the consent you grant to CommUnity to retrieve transaction data from your bank account(s) will expire in 12 months. You can revoke your consent at any time through the ‘Manage Account’ menu in the CommUnity member portal, or through my.akahu.nz
There is also a status feature alongside each ‘linked’ account in the app or the web member portal showing whether your account is still actively linked, or if you need to link and grant consent to that account again. For example, if you change your mobile banking password, set up a new account, or change banks, you will need to update your linked accounts with CommUnity. Please remember that if your account becomes ‘unlinked’ then any transactions from purchases made at any of our CommUnity Merchants cannot be identified to capture donations to your chosen CommUnity Groups.
Read more ‘linking accounts’ FAQ’s – Click Here
For more detailed information, please review our Privacy Policy and our Terms & Conditions using the links below. Here you will also find links to Akahu’s Data Compliance & Security Safety Notice, Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.