The Point 2026 by Payments NZ

The Point 2026 is the next edition of Payments NZ's premier payments industry conference, scheduled for 25-26 November 2026 at the New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. According to the official event site, the conference runs under the theme "Shaping the future of payments", drawing on the Māori concept of tātai (connection) to frame the decisions facing the payments ecosystem.

Who runs it

The conference is organised by Payments NZ, with FIS named as principal sponsor on the event site. Payments NZ describes itself as a governance organisation at the heart of Aotearoa New Zealand's payments system, formed in 2010 by the industry with support from the Reserve Bank. Its shareholders are ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Citibank, HSBC, Kiwibank, TSB Bank and Westpac. The organisation develops and manages the rules and standards for three clearing systems — the Bulk Electronic Clearing System (BECS), the Consumer Electronic Clearing System (CECS) and the High Value Clearing System (HVCS) — and operates the API Centre, the open-banking standards body established in May 2019. Payments NZ presents The Point as its biennial flagship, sitting alongside its other events (The Hub, The Link and The Forum).

Who it's for and the programme

The event site positions The Point for leaders, decision-makers and innovators across the payments sector in Aotearoa New Zealand, with a speaker line-up it describes as international payments leaders and prominent local industry voices (no individual speakers were named on the site at the time of research). The programme is organised into three tracks: "Aligning Direction" (payments infrastructure and systems evolution), "Building Trust" (trust and safety, consumer confidence and system integrity) and "Creating Wellbeing" (operational resilience, interoperability, performance and long-term sustainability), with named sessions including an opening address, a trust forum, an infrastructure and innovation session and a closing session.

Venue and delegate movement

The conference is centred at the NZICC, which the event site calls "a purpose-built, world-class venue in the heart of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland". The venues page lists three pedestrian entry points — 101 Hobson Street, 83 Wellesley Street West and 50 Nelson Street — and notes 1,327 undercover onsite car parks including accessible bays and EV charging. The site links to separate accommodation and parking pages rather than detailing hotel or public-transport options directly; the central-city location places delegates within walking distance of Auckland's main CBD hotel stock.

Why it matters in NZ MICE

The Point is a significant fixture on New Zealand's business-events calendar for the financial-services and fintech sector. Payments NZ reports that the previous edition, The Point 2024, drew more than 400 delegates and featured 63 speakers and panelists at the Aotea Centre, covering open banking, regulatory change, generative AI, digital identity and cross-border payments. Moving the 2026 edition into the NZICC — Auckland's largest purpose-built convention venue — signals the conference's scale as a national gathering for the payments ecosystem.

Related events

Within Payments NZ's own programme, The Point sits alongside The Hub, The Link and The Forum. The 2024 predecessor, themed "Ki tua – navigating beyond", is documented in Payments NZ's own highlights material and provides the clearest reference point for what the 2026 conference will deliver.