# Whakaaro Limited Independent transaction banking advice for mid-market and large New Zealand organisations. We know how banks think. Now we work for you. Contact email: elaine@whakaaro.kiwi Phone: 021 039 4683 Address: 45 Hardens Lane, Paremoremo, Auckland 0632 Website: https://whakaaro.kiwi ## What Whakaaro is Whakaaro helps New Zealand organisations make sense of banking. Payments, cash management, liquidity, trade and receivables finance should free up time and support growth. Too often the value is hard to see, hard to implement, or hard to measure. Whakaaro advises, helps implement, and helps measure outcomes on the client side of the table. ## Services ### Banking Health Check Give business owners, CFOs and finance teams a clear view of whether their current banking structure is fit for purpose, cost-effective and ready for growth. Best for: Businesses that have not reviewed their banking setup recently, are growing quickly, are multi-banked, or feel their arrangements have become complex or costly. - Review current banks, accounts, facilities, users, channels and fee structures. - Identify hidden costs, duplicated accounts, manual workarounds and poor banking fit. - Assess whether the structure supports future growth and operating complexity. - Deliver a practical findings report with quick wins, risks and priority recommendations. ### Bank Cost and Fee Review Reduce avoidable banking costs and ensure you are on the most suitable account, pricing and fee structure. Best for: Clients who suspect they are paying too much, have grown through acquisition, operate across multiple entities, or have never had their banking fees independently challenged. - Analyse bank statements, merchant fees, payment fees, account charges and service pricing. - Benchmark current pricing against expected market structures and usage patterns. - Identify account rationalisation, pricing negotiation and product substitution opportunities. - Support bank conversations to secure measurable cost savings. ### Payments and Receivables Optimisation Improve how money comes in and goes out, reducing manual effort, improving reconciliation and freeing up cash from working capital. Best for: Businesses with high transaction volumes, clunky payment processes, manual reconciliation, delayed collections or pressure to improve cash conversion. - Map receivables, payables, payment files, approval workflows and reconciliation processes. - Identify cash trapped in receivables, slow collections and payment inefficiencies. - Assess opportunities for automation, better channels and cleaner reporting. - Create an implementation roadmap for process, banking and technology changes. ### Bank RFP, RFI and Negotiation Support Help you select, challenge or renegotiate with banks from a position of confidence, using clear requirements and banking insider knowledge. Best for: Clients going to market, reviewing incumbent banks, expanding offshore, adding complexity, or needing an independent voice between the business and the bank. - Define requirements across accounts, channels, payments, receivables, liquidity, FX, cards and implementation support. - Prepare RFP or RFI materials and manage the bank response process. - Compare proposals in plain English across cost, capability, service and future fit. - Lead or support negotiation to improve commercial and operational outcomes. ### Banking Implementation and Transition Office Turn banking decisions into working outcomes by leading execution, documentation, onboarding, testing and business change. Best for: Clients who know what needs to change but do not have the time, experience or internal capacity to manage the bank transition properly. - Coordinate bank onboarding, KYC, account opening, authority structures and documentation. - Manage channel setup, user access, payment testing, training and cutover. - Support stakeholders across finance, treasury, IT, operations and leadership. - Track milestones, issues, savings and realised value. ### Treasury, Liquidity and Cash Visibility Review Improve control, visibility and use of cash across entities, banks, currencies and jurisdictions. Best for: Growing businesses, exporters, importers, multi-entity groups and organisations operating across countries, currencies or banking partners. - Review account structures, liquidity arrangements, cash concentration, visibility and reporting. - Identify idle cash, trapped cash, unnecessary complexity and weak reporting lines. - Assess multi-bank, multi-country and multi-entity structures against operating needs. - Recommend practical improvements to visibility, control and funding decisions. ### Payments Modernisation and ISO 20022 Readiness Help you understand and prepare for payment modernisation, file format change, richer payment data and bank connectivity requirements. Best for: Clients facing payment file changes, ERP migration, banking platform change, payments transformation or uncertainty around ISO 20022. - Review current payment file formats, bank channels, ERP outputs and payment workflows. - Identify readiness gaps across systems, processes, people, controls and bank requirements. - Translate technical banking requirements into practical business actions. - Develop a readiness plan covering testing, migration, stakeholder engagement and operational impacts. ### Ongoing Banking Performance Partner Provide recurring independent support so banking arrangements keep performing as the business grows and changes. Best for: Clients who want an independent banking adviser on call, without employing specialist transaction banking capability internally. - Run periodic banking performance reviews and fee checks. - Support bank relationship governance, issue escalation and service accountability. - Monitor new opportunities across payments, cash management, cards, FX and working capital. - Maintain an action plan that tracks value delivered, savings realised and future priorities. ## Founders ### Cody Martin 20 years · Payments & Banking Infrastructure Cody helps businesses improve the way payments and operational banking work in practice. He brings experience across payments, banking infrastructure, relationship management, and client-side optimisation. ### Elaine Matthews 35 years · Transaction Banking & Change Elaine helps organisations turn banking change into practical, adopted ways of working. She connects strategy with delivery so new solutions are understood, embedded, and measured. ### Jarron Boulter 30 years · Corporate, Institutional & Liquidity Jarron helps businesses approach banking decisions and negotiations with greater confidence. He understands how banks think and helps shape solutions that are commercially sound and practical. ## FAQs ### What does Whakaaro Limited do? Whakaaro is an independent transaction banking consultancy that works on the client’s side of the table. We help New Zealand organisations review banking arrangements, fees, payments, RFPs, implementation and ongoing banking performance. ### Who is Whakaaro for? We work with mid-market and large New Zealand organisations, including CFOs, finance managers, treasurers, business owners and boards that need clearer banking decisions without hiring specialist transaction banking capability in-house. ### Are you a bank or a bank-side consultant? No. Our founders come from senior banking roles, but Whakaaro advises clients, not banks. The advice is shaped around what fits the business, not a bank mandate. ### What services do you offer? Eight outcome packages: Banking Health Check; Bank Cost and Fee Review; Payments and Receivables Optimisation; Bank RFP, RFI and Negotiation Support; Banking Implementation and Transition Office; Treasury, Liquidity and Cash Visibility Review; Payments Modernisation and ISO 20022 Readiness; and Ongoing Banking Performance Partner. ### Where is Whakaaro based? Whakaaro Limited is based in Auckland, New Zealand, and works with organisations across Aotearoa New Zealand. ### How do I start a conversation? Book a banking review via the contact form at whakaaro.kiwi/contact, or email info@whakaaro.kiwi, or call 021 039 4683. ## Insights ### The bank fees you stopped seeing Growth, acquisitions and new entities quietly stack up account charges, payment fees and unused products. A simple fee review often pays for itself. Most finance teams do not ignore bank fees on purpose. The statements arrive. The totals look familiar. Then the business grows, adds an entity, opens another account for a project, or inherits a merchant setup from an acquisition. The fees keep moving with the activity, and nobody has time to challenge them properly. That is how “we pay what we pay” becomes the default. A useful fee review does three things. First, it maps what you actually use: accounts, channels, payment methods, cards, FX and merchant services. Second, it lines that usage up against pricing and product fit, not just the rate card. Third, it turns findings into a conversation the bank can act on, with clear asks and a sense of what “good” looks like for a business of your shape. You do not need a full RFP to start. You need a clean view of cost drivers, a short list of quick wins, and someone who can translate bank speak into decisions your CFO and board can follow. If your banking setup has not been reviewed in a few years, or it grew organically across entities, a focused Bank Cost and Fee Review is usually the lowest-friction place to begin. ### Sitting on your side of the table Banking advice sounds different when it comes from people who used to represent the bank. Here is what changes when that experience works for the client. For years, our founders’ job was to represent the bank. Win the mandate. Shape the solution. Deliver value for the institution. That work builds a clear picture of how banks price, prioritise and decide. Whakaaro exists because that picture is useful on the other side of the table too. Independent advice is not about being adversarial. It is about making sure the business understands its options before it commits. That might mean reviewing whether the current structure still fits. It might mean running a bank selection process. It might mean helping a finance team implement a payments change without losing months to documentation, testing and cutover detail. What clients usually want is not another framework deck. They want plain English, practical next steps, and someone who has already lived the conversation they are about to have with their bank. That is the shift. Same banking experience. Different seat at the table. Outcomes measured for the business, not for the institution that used to employ us.