We aren’t a bank because we don’t have a banking licence. We are a registered financial services provider in NZ.

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A bank’s primary business is borrowing and lending money. Ever wonder how banks make so much profit year-on-year? It’s from lending your money to other people - whether that be businesses in the form of business loans or consumers as mortgages.

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The reason your banking experience is so poor is there’s no incentive for them to improve it. Why would they spend millions improving their customer service or technology if it’s not the thing that grows their profits? 

Everything else they offer - your business account, debit cards, internet banking, etc - is just window dressing so you come to them to borrow money.

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We don’t do that. We do the bits they treat as an afterthought, but 100 times better.

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‍Why do you call yourself a bank then?

We don’t - and we won’t, unless one day, we’re licensed by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
We sometimes use the word banking because it’s the easiest way for people to understand what we help them do - move, spend, and manage money. But technically, those things aren’t “banking” in the legal sense - they’re financial services.

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So while we talk about banking the way customers experience it, we’re always clear that Emerge isn’t a registered bank.

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If you’re not a bank, is my money safe?

Yes. 

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All money deposited with Emerge is held in trust with a major registered NZ-based bank (with an S&P AA- rating - the highest in NZ). The short story - if anything happens to Emerge, your money is still safe.