Connecting Your Bank Securely
ARA Wealth helps you understand and manage your finances by securely importing your bank transactions.
To do this, we use Akahu, a trusted Open Banking provider in New Zealand that securely connects financial apps to banks.
Connecting your bank account is optional and completely under your control.
On this page:
What happens when you connect
When you choose to connect your bank account:
- 1You will be redirected to Akahu's secure authorisation page.
- 2You will choose which accounts you want to share with ARA Wealth.
- 3Your bank will verify your identity.
- 4Akahu securely provides ARA Wealth with permission to access the selected financial data.
At no point does ARA Wealth receive or store your internet banking username or password.
What data we receive
If you connect your bank, ARA Wealth may receive the following information through Akahu:
- Account names and account types
- Account balances
- Transaction history
- Transaction descriptions, dates, and amounts
- Merchant information associated with transactions
This information is used only to provide financial insights and budgeting tools inside the ARA Wealth platform.
Why we access this data
Your financial data allows ARA Wealth to:
- Automatically import your transactions
- Categorise spending
- Help you track budgets
- Provide financial insights
- Help you make informed financial decisions
Without this data connection, ARA Wealth can still be used by manually entering transactions.
Your control over your data
You remain in control of your financial data at all times.
You can:
- Choose which accounts to connect
- Disconnect your bank at any time
- Revoke access granted through Akahu
- Delete your account and associated data
When you disconnect, access tokens are revoked immediately and no further data is retrieved from the bank.
Historical transaction data that has already been imported may remain available to you for financial history continuity. Financial data is retained only as long as reasonably required to provide the ARA Wealth service and in accordance with the New Zealand Privacy Act.
Security and protection
ARA Wealth uses industry standard security practices to protect your information, including:
- Encrypted connections (HTTPS)
- Secure storage of access tokens
- Access control and authentication systems
Akahu also applies strict security standards when connecting to financial institutions.
Who is Akahu
Akahu is a New Zealand Open Banking provider that enables secure connections between financial institutions and approved applications.