The New Zealand Herald has termed fintech ‘the talk of the town’ across the ditch, with Kiwis focused on redefining the financial services.

Thus far, fintech innovation in New Zealand is focused on the front end, with a boom in peer-to-peer (P2P) lending services and crowdfunding campaigns securing spots as the country’s most popular new enterprises.

The New Zealand Herald has now identified robo-advice solutions as the next big step for the country’s financial advisory sector, stating that major fintech disruption to capital markets will not be front-end and will come from the use of blockchain.

Several banking institutions and investment exchanges across the world have already embraced blockchain, with overhauls on the radar of many others across the Asia-Pacific. In New Zealand, venture capital and institutional funding for blockchain research, innovation and trials is said to be ‘flooding in’.

The opportunity for blockchain to leverage immediate and secure records of transition and transfers of value without intermediaries for New Zealand capital markets are vast, with profound implications for now outdated administration functions.

While many countries struggle to adequately control fintech innovation with appropriate regulatory measures, New Zealand’s regulatory approach to fintech could be one of strong facilitation. The Financial Markets Conduct Act has laid down strong provisions for the encouragement of innovation and efficiency across domestic financial markets, leaving the country in solid stead to progress into new territory.

The nation will now look to follow both Australia and the United Kingdom and the recent creation of a regulatory’ sandbox’, which encourages entrepreneurs to experiment away from typical  regulatory consequences.