Latest / Best of Business / Shane Marsh: Dosh co-founder on the company's bid to become New Zealand's first digital-only bank

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Shane Marsh: Dosh co-founder on the company's bid to become New Zealand's first digital-only bank · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks be follow
• 0:12
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: New Zealand company Dosh is trying to become the first
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand digital only bank. Dosh has started the application
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  Speaker 2: process to become a registered bank in New Zealand in
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  Speaker 2: the hope that it will increase banking competition. Shane marsh
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  Speaker 2: is Dosh's co founder and chief executive and with us now,
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  Speaker 2: Hey Shane, hi, So if you're digital only? What was that?
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  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me a lot.
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  Speaker 2: You're more than welcome. If you're digital only, does that
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  Speaker 2: mean you've got no ATMs where I can take money out?
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  Speaker 2: You've got no bank branches? Nothing like that?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, traditional bank has branches. You'll feed them along all
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  Speaker 3: the high streets of the New Zealand cities and towns.
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  Speaker 3: And these branches cost a lot of money to rent,
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  Speaker 3: to maintain and to staff as well. So with the
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  Speaker 3: prices that are set by a normal banking organization, they
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  Speaker 3: need to cover all of these costs. A digital bank
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  Speaker 3: doesn't have those branches as much lower number of staff
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  Speaker 3: and their or the prices and value to consumers. Who
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  Speaker 3: is much better?
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  Speaker 2: Do I? Have the option of withdrawing cash from my
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  Speaker 2: bank account though.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, you can remove it from your bank account
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  Speaker 3: through just normal internet banking or mobile banking as people
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  Speaker 3: do today.
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  Speaker 2: What about what no bank card? I can't go get
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  Speaker 2: twenty bucks for I don't know, Lolli's.
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  Speaker 3: In terms of cash? Yeah, well we find most people
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  Speaker 3: are not operating with cash today and most people are
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  Speaker 3: using a card or a digital card to make their payments.
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  Speaker 2: I noticed that you guys say you'd become the first
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  Speaker 2: New Zealand owned digital only bank. Are there others who
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  Speaker 2: are not New Zealand owned who are already doing this?
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  Speaker 3: Are there Rabo Direct, who's a Netherlands back bank And
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  Speaker 3: previously you may recall Bank Direct which was owned by
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  Speaker 3: Australian based ASP, which was amalgamated into ASB some four
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  Speaker 3: or five years ago. So since those banks were created
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  Speaker 3: that there's been a lot change from a technology perspective.
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  Speaker 3: From what we've seen in the last five to ten
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  Speaker 3: years across the world is the emergence of mobile based
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  Speaker 3: digital banks offering the latest technology, news services and better
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  Speaker 3: value for consumers and have been wildly popular. In the UK.
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  Speaker 3: For example, two and every three people have a digital
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  Speaker 3: only bank accounts.
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  Speaker 2: What are the hurdles that you have got to overcome
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  Speaker 2: in order to be cleared for this?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, so we'll be working with the Reserve Bank on
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  Speaker 3: our application and they look at a number of factors
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  Speaker 3: such as our compliance and the security and also our
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  Speaker 3: systems and the amount of capital which is a cash
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  Speaker 3: that we have set aside if things don't go well.
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  Speaker 3: We have our fund held in a bank today and
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  Speaker 3: so those funds are secure and we're also compliant in
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  Speaker 3: the same way as the bankers, so we feel confident
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  Speaker 3: we can most of the requirements. That only be a
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  Speaker 3: few that will work with on the with the Reserve Bank.
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  Speaker 2: How many millions do you have to hold.
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  Speaker 3: Well to become a regis spank in New Zealand, you
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  Speaker 3: actually have to hold thirty million dollars of capital, which
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  Speaker 3: is a lot, particularly compared with other countries such as
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  Speaker 3: Australia at fifteen million dollars of capital, or perhaps the
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  Speaker 3: UK where it's only million pounds of capital. But what
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  Speaker 3: we're finding in the market at the moment is that
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  Speaker 3: both the Commerce Commission and the Reserve Bank and the
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  Speaker 3: government are looking for greater competition in the banking market,
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  Speaker 3: and they're looking again at some of these rules in
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  Speaker 3: terms of how can we better enhanced competition players like
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  Speaker 3: Dosh into the market so we can offer new services.
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  Speaker 2: So ultimately, Shane, are you are you hoping to have
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  Speaker 2: that threshold clear it like for them to drop it
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  Speaker 2: down from thirty mil in order for you to be
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  Speaker 2: able to get in or are you going to scrape
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  Speaker 2: together thirty mil?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, we're confident that we can meet the requirements
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  Speaker 3: that the bank were said and we were forward to
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  Speaker 3: working with them on that. So it's yeah, Look, it's
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  Speaker 3: an interesting it's an interesting topic about the capital, but
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  Speaker 3: ultimately for us, it's more about how can we do
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  Speaker 3: better for consumers and boffer them better value in pricing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, good stuff, Best of lucky it, Shane, Thanks for
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  Speaker 2: talking us through its Shane Marsh, the co founder and
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  Speaker 2: the chief executive of Dosh.
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