March 26, 2015 9:00am by David Farrar

Are MBIE requiring people to break their bank’s terms and conditions ?

A reader writes in:

As you’re no doubt aware, directors of companies are required to lodge a company return every year, and since about 2012 that has involved paying a fee of about $45. While it’s a bit cheeky of them to start charging for something that used to be free, that’s not what I’m concerned about. Rather, it is that in order to pay that fee without using your credit card, you have to disclose your internet banking credentials to the RealMe website. And that website is a third party in the eyes of most banks, which means that they expect you to breach your bank’s electronic banking terms and conditions.

In my case I am using the ANZ and their Electronic Banking Conditions of Use can be found at http://www.anz.co.nz/resources/6/7/67cd07804ee131e5bc44fe146f64e4a5/ANZ-Electronic-COU.pdf with the applicable rule on page 8: “Don’t enter your login details onto a third party website”.

I made contact with the companies office to enlighten them about this conundrum, however they do not seem interested. Initially they told me that the payments portal takes me to the bank’s website (verbally over the phone so I cannot prove it) and subsequently they emailed me with:

Further to our telephone conversation last week. I have spoken with our accounts team.

They confirm that DPS does not gather or store your information, rather it just directs you to your nominated bank .

I also took the liberty of contacting the ANZ via bank mail, with their reply including:

“You cannot provide your personal log on details to anyone, including government website’s.”
(their apostrophe error, not mine).

I replied to the MBIE with a few screenshots, including of the page where they want your login details (screenshot is at the end of the email), a link to ANZ’s T&C’s, and the ANZ’s reply. They just told me that I should lodge it manually (by post) and pay with a cheque – which defeats the purpose of doing everything online!

I have two problems with the MoBIE online payment arrangement. First is that they have obviously set it up without asking the banks whether they would be happy with the arrangement – they just did it.

The second is that they are pretty presumptuous in thinking that people will be happy to break their agreement with their bank in order to pay a government fee.

I also note that when you pay your company renewal in Australia you can use BPAY, which is a payment system run by the banks.