Security & bank connections
Read-only bank access, so your money can never be moved
SortMe can see your transactions so it can help you make better calls with your money. It can never move a cent, change a payment, or touch anything at your bank. Here's exactly how that works, with no hand-waving.
- households helped
- 12,000+
- Trustpilot
- ★ 4.6
- encryption
- AES-256
- Google Security Audit
- Passed
Read-only, explained plainly
What "read-only" means
When you connect a bank account, SortMe gets permission to look: balances, transactions, account names. That's the entire scope of access. There is no technical pathway from SortMe to a payment, a transfer, or a change to anything at your bank. We didn't just decide not to build it; the connection type we use doesn't allow it.
That's a deliberate design choice. A tool that helps you see your whole financial picture (mortgage, KiwiSaver, shares, business accounts, everyday spending) should never be able to act on it without you. You act. We inform.
If someone got into your SortMe account, the worst they could do is see your transactions. They could not move a single dollar.
How Akahu works
How SortMe connects to your bank: Akahu
SortMe doesn't connect to your bank directly. We go through Akahu, New Zealand's open finance platform. Akahu is backed by Westpac NZ and is the connection layer trusted by NZ fintechs, KiwiSaver providers and government-adjacent services. Their whole business is doing bank connections properly, under NZ law, with security audited to bank standards.
Here's the flow:
- 1
You choose your bank inside SortMe.
We hand you to Akahu’s secure connection flow.
- 2
You authorise the connection with your bank.
For most banks you approve it in your own banking app, so no password is ever typed into SortMe.
- 3
Akahu passes SortMe read-only data.
Balances and transactions flow in. Nothing flows back out to your bank.
- 4
You stay in control.
You can see every active connection in SortMe and disconnect any of them, any time, in two clicks.
Open banking, via Akahu
Every SortMe connection is made by Akahu, and SortMe never connects directly to a bank. For most banks Akahu uses New Zealand's official open banking API: you approve the connection inside your own banking app, approve the exact scope of access, and can revoke it from the bank's side too. It's the gold standard, and as each remaining bank switches it on, your connection upgrades automatically, with nothing for you to redo.
Where open banking isn't live yet, Akahu uses its standard secure connection in the meantime: still read-only, still encrypted, still revocable in two clicks.
Which banks and accounts can I connect?
- All major NZ banks: ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Kiwibank, Westpac, TSB, SBS
- Mortgage accounts (smart auto-detection spots your mortgage and tracks the balance and rate)
- KiwiSaver providers (balance tracking)
- Sharesies, Kernel and other investment platforms
- Foreign-currency accounts, auto-converted to NZD
- Anything else via CSV import
The whole permission
What SortMe can and cannot do
SortMe CAN
- See your balances and transactions
- Categorise your spending and spot subscriptions
- Track your mortgage, KiwiSaver and investments
- Alert you to risks and opportunities
- Show your data to an advisor only if you choose to
SortMe CANNOT
- Move money. No transfers, no payments, ever
- Change anything at your bank
- See or store your internet banking password (open banking connections)
- Sign you up for anything at your bank
- Sell your data to anyone. Full stop.
Security measures
How your data is protected
AES-256 encryption
The same encryption standard banks and governments use, protecting your data in transit and at rest. Intercepting it in transit would get an attacker a wall of noise.
Passed Google Security Audit
SortMe has passed Google’s independent third-party security audit, a requirement for the deepest levels of data access on Google’s platforms, and one most apps never attempt.
You hold the keys
Two-click disconnection for any bank connection. Full account deletion whenever you want it, from inside the app. No “please call us to cancel” games.
Your data is not the product
You pay for SortMe. That's the business model, the whole thing. We don't sell your data, we don't rent it to advertisers, and we don't share it with anyone you haven't personally authorised. The only humans who can ever see your financial picture are you, anyone you invite into your household view, and, if you choose to work with one, a financial advisor, on your terms (more on that in the FAQs below).
When you delete your account, your data is deleted with it.
