Changes to foreign cheques

• If you’re expecting a foreign cheque, it’s important to contact the person or company sending you the foreign cheque to make other arrangements.
• Have the money sent to your ANZ account via overseas electronic payment – it’s a fast and secure alternative to foreign cheques.
• If the person or company issuing the cheque doesn’t have the option for overseas electronic payment, you’ll need to discuss your options with them directly. 

If you used foreign cheques to send money between your own overseas bank account and ANZ account:

• Contact your overseas bank and see if they have an option to send overseas electronic payments to your ANZ account.
• You may be able to register for internet banking or mobile banking with your overseas bank to send this money electronically.

To receive an overseas payment, you’ll need to provide the following information to the person or company making the payment to you:

• Your account number
• Your account name
• Your residential address listed on the account
• ANZ's full beneficiary bank name: ANZ Bank New Zealand Limited
• ANZ's SWIFT code: ANZBNZ22 (also known as a Bank Identifier Code or BIC)
  Note: If the other party requires an 11-digit SWIFT, use ANZBNZ22XXX

You can also complete the ANZ payment instructions form (PDF 275KB) and forward it to the sender – it has all the information you will need to make the payment.

IBAN is an account format used by European banks. New Zealand banks do not use this format and an IBAN is not required to send money to an ANZ bank account. Other persons or companies with an IBAN field on their overseas payment form can leave this field blank.

Some banks may ask for a National Clearing Code, Routing Number, BSB Number or Sort Code. If this is required by the bank sending the money they should use the first six digits (bank and branch codes) of your account number that you want to receive the payment into.

e.g. For 01-0123-0123456-00 use 010123

For regulatory purposes, the sender will be required to provide their bank account number, their full name and a physical address.

• Our inward payment fee for receiving an overseas electronic payment is NZD15 and we waive this fee if the payment value is under NZD300.
• Other account fees and charges may apply depending on the type of account, see our rates, fees and agreements page.

Currently for foreign cheque deposits, there’s a NZD15 fee per deposit and we only waive this fee if the payment value is under NZD75.

Depending on the type of foreign cheque you receive, here’s some other useful information that may help.

You may be able to register online with the pension scheme to receive your pension electronically. Contact your provider to find out more. 

Contact your provider to discuss alternate options which may include receiving your payment electronically. 

You may be able to register online to receive payments electronically, or alternatively contact your sharebroker to understand what other options are available.

If the foreign government department will only provide a cheque, contact your tax adviser to understand what other options are available.