Nine To Noon for Friday 17 October 2025

09:05 Open banking regulations announced, start Dec 1 

Banking innovators say consumers will be the winners after a government decision that banks may not charge for access to customer data. Yesterday, the Government announced final open banking regulations, which the big four banks will be required to meet from December, with Kiwibank added over the following year.  Banks will not be able to charge financial tech companies to access data or process payments. This would cover a range of new apps for example, budgeting, bill splitting, money transfer, and savings apps. The Government had proposed allowing the big banks to charge fintechs as much as $5 a month per customer, or one cent per request for data. The fintech sector argued this would threaten their viability and allowed banks to stifle competitive innovation. The Banking Association says it supports open banking, and is pleased the regulations have been completed six weeks ahead of implementation. James Wigglesworth is co-founder at budgeting app Pocketsmith, and Josh Daniell is the co-founder of open banking data provider Akahu.

09:20 Community groups welcome Minister's revisiting of online gambling bill

The minister in charge of the online casino bill is looking again at the new legislation after huge opposition driven by a possible loss of community funding. The Online Casino Gambling Bill would introduce 15 licences for online casinos, require companies to provide a harm prevention strategy, ensure their users are at least 18 years old and adhere to advertising restrictions. Onshore operators like Lotto, TAB and pokies are required to put a proportion of their proceeds back into the community, but the new bill had no similar provisions for the new online licence holders. Community and sports groups were worried the new casinos would drag customers away from New Zealand operations to online, leading to a loss in funds available for community grants. Now the Minister, Brook van Velden has said in a statement to Nine to Noon  the advice she received was that people would not substitute physical gambling for online gambling, so community funding would not be affected. But she said,  community groups have a very different view and it is important to get the balance right, so she will be writing to Cabinet seeking agreement to add community funding to the Online Casino Gambling Bill. The former head of  New Zealand Cricket,  Martin Snedden,  led a coalition of the country's 35 largest sporting codes to submit against the decision.

09:30 The young choral composer finding success on the international stage

09:45 Asia correspondent 

The US-China trade war has flared up over the past week, while in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling party are hoping a cut to GST will boost the economy. 

Ed White is a correspondent with the Financial Times based in Shanghai

10:05 Tony Lindsay - Santana lead vocalist for 25 years 

11 time Grammy award winner Tony Lindsay was the lead singer for Santana for 25 years. Santana's 1999 album, Supernatural, won nine Grammys and broke the record held by Michael Jackson's Thriller for the most honored album. Tony Lindsay left Santana 10 years ago and persued a solo career - he's in New Zealand for the Jazz Festival. 

10:30 Health NZ releasing new immunisation campaign after measles outbreak

Health NZ is releasing a new information campaign to encourage parents to immunise their children after the outbreak of measles in Northland. Over 9000 MMR vaccinations were delivered nationwide, with pop ups providing over 700 immunisations in Northland and Queenstown, after the outbreak of the highly infectious disease in three weeks. As of this week, 13 cases of measles had been confirmed, 12 in Northland, and one separate unrelated case in Queenstown. Now a new social media campaign is being launched today which aims to encourage whānau to ask questions about immunisation and ensure they are well armed with knowledge from trusted sources. Susie talks to Nikki Canter-Burgoyne, Health NZ's National Director, Prevention.

10:35 Book review: Gloam by Jack Mackay

Roger Christensen of Unity Books Auckland reviews Gloam by Jack Mackay, published by Oneworld.

10:45 Around the motu: Tess Brunton in Dunedin

Tess has the latest with the Otago councillor accused of financial misconduct, court action over protecting the hoiho, and Dunedin's new mayor.

11:05 Music with Grant Smithies 

Many Jamaican ska, rocksteady and reggae acts cut their teeth recording cover versions of American funk and soul classics. The new Soul Jamaica album collects some of the best of these. We'll hear two key tracks from that today, followed by a welcome reissue from Dunedin sonic architects HDU and some hefty Colombian funk from Wganda Kenya. 

11:30 Sports commentator Dana Johannsen

11:45 The week that was

Our comedians Te Radar and Irene Pink bring some levity to the end of the week.