How Canstar avoids conflicts of interest

Canstar New Zealand is committed to offering comprehensive information to consumers for free.

To generate this quality information we employ over 100 staff including many with extensive experience in financial services, we collect and maintain large volumes of data and we run complex computer systems. All of these costs add up and we generate revenue in a range of ways to pay for it.

We go to great lengths to ensure that the commercial relationships we have don’t compromise the quality of our ratings and research.

In many ways, we are similar to a quality newspaper. We have outstanding researchers and journalists that publish quality material. Separately to this, we have a team that does the commercial stuff, such as selling advertisements. Just as quality newspapers take their journalism very seriously and separate the commercial side, Canstar takes its research very seriously and goes to great pains to ensure that our Star Ratings and Awards are not influenced by the fees we earn. Our journalists write stories in line with our editorial charter, putting you first. Our researchers think the same way.

Here are some of the things we do to avoid conflicts of interest:

Our research team is separated from our commercial functions

Our core research team is separated from the rest of the business and particularly from our commercial functions.

We have a separate team that looks after our website and negotiates our subscriptions and licenses with financial institutions.

We ensure that our internal reporting structures, information access and physical layouts are optimally structured to avoid conflicts of interest between research and sales that could otherwise potentially arise.

2 We are open about our research methodologies

We publish our research methodologies on our website. These show how we calculate the winners of our ratings and awards based on prices, fees and product features. We work with the banking and finance industry through a series of annual workshops where we discuss and refine these methodologies.

3 We are clear on how we get paid

At Canstar we believe we can best serve our customers by being open about how we run our business, and in that spirit, we are clear about how we make money. You can read more about this here.

Information updated as at August 27, 2024.