Grieving parents say banks must block alcohol purchases by under 18s

Sunday, 26 October 2025

Banks in New Zealand should follow Westpac Australia’s moral lead and block under 18s’ credit and debit cards from being accepted in bottle shops, nightclubs, bars and vape shops, grieving parents Ben and Sarah Sims say.

Their son Silas was killed in July after crashing his car during an evening spent with friends that may not have ended in tragedy had he not been able to buy alcohol in a bar and a bottle shop with his bank card.

It is illegal for under 18s to buy alcohol, and Ben and Sarah found themselves having to push authorities to take action against the bar and bottle shop.

But the Warkworth couple were also appalled to find that no bank in New Zealand has invested in systems change to block under 18s’ cards being used in premises that are primarily in the business of selling alcohol.

Banks are legally obliged to have systems that are sophisticated enough to detect and prevent money laundering, and terrorist financing, and they profess a growing capability in detecting fraud, and several also use merchant codes to enable people to put gambling blocks on their cards and accounts.

But they have not used that technological capability in order to prevent their services being used by under 18s to buy alcohol, as can happen in Australia.

The couple have begun meeting with banks, MPs, and are preparing for a meeting with Roger Beaumont, chief executive of the Banking Association, the political lobbying body for the banking industry.

They are determined to see banks move to recognise a moral duty of care towards both under 18s, and also to their parents, who are generally the ones who organise bank accounts and cards for their children.

“It is a strange thing that they can facilitate payments that are illegal,” Ben said.

It’s not as if the issue of paying for alcohol has not been considered in New Zealand. Work and Income issues payment cards for urgent, one-off emergency purchases like food, glasses or dental treatment.

Those cards block alcohol, tobacco, vape and gambling purchases.

Ben and Sarah recognise that alcohol blocks on cards, like the one Westpac in Australia has, are not cure-all. Teens could take out cash to make alcohol purchases. But they do not see that as excusing banks from a moral duty not to facilitate illegal payments.

In some alternative scenarios for the night on which Silas used his card to buy alcohol before driving, he would have made it home alive, his parents say.

“I have a story where he went to the pub, he went to the liquor store in the morning, got turned down. So they went to Leigh, had a bomb off the wharf, and had a muck around, and came home. Because they can't, they didn't get served. There is a scenario where that happened,” said Ben.

Alcohol harm expert Andy Towers, associate professor at Massey University, said banks were in a legal grey area when it came to duties to prevent their cards from being used by under 18s to buy alcohol.

But Silas’ experience highlighted holes in New Zealand’s approach to reducing alcohol harm among under 18s.

“Market operators are not stepping forward to say, ‘We have a moral obligation’,” said Towers, who is the co-director of Massey’s Mental Health and Addiction Programme.

“If you can block [alcohol transactions for under 18s], it would seem like a no-brainer,” Towers said.

That such blocks were in place in Australia and not in New Zealand argued that there were gaps in the law, he said.

Towers said the political climate had also moved back towards being more permissive of alcohol sales, and multiple bills have come before Parliament in the last two years aimed at relaxing alcohol sales restrictions.

Banks appear to be able to put in place blocks based on merchant codes for primary liquor licence holders, the same mechanism some like Kiwibank use to allow gamblers to put voluntary gambling blocks on their cards and accounts.

“It’s not rocket science,” said Ben, a technology expert. “It’s not money laundering, but it is illegal activity.”

However, what banks call “product specific” blocks, which prevent alcohol from being bought in a retailer that sells a wide range of goods, including alcohol, like a supermarket, are more technologically challenging.

The big five banks - ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac and Kiwibank - told the Sunday Star-Times they had either already met with Silas’ parents, or would do shortly.

All confirmed they did not take any steps to prevent payment cards they issue to under 18s from being used to make illegal purchases of alcohol.

A Kiwibank spokesperson said: “We absolutely recognise the importance of protecting young people from harm, and our thoughts are with the family and community affected by this devastating loss.

“At present, we can block certain types of transactions based on merchant category codes. This is how we support customers who choose to block certain types of gambling-related spending.

“However, when it comes to alcohol, tobacco, and vape products, the challenge is that many retailers sell a mix of items, and current payment systems don’t provide item-level detail.”

Other banks seemed to indicate that they too have the power to block transactions for certain merchants like bars, night clubs, bottle shops and vape shops using merchant codes, even if it would be harder to handle multi-category retailers like supermarkets.

They say the blocks would, however, only work for Visa and Mastercard debit and credit cards, and not Eftpos cards, which have been falling out of use.

Jonathan Oram, executive general manager of corporate banking at ASB, Silas’ bank, said: “Blocking specific transactions, such as alcohol or vape purchases, for minors, isn’t straight forward with the way current systems work.

“While banks can identify transactions at broad business types like bars, restaurants, supermarkets or dairies, they do not provide visibility into individual products purchased.”

Towers did not feel this was a reason not to act. He felt supermarkets were more likely to be careful on checking the ages of shoppers buying alcohol, if they looked young.

Sarah agreed: “Pak ‘n Save is going to have a security guard. It’s going to have a duty manager. It’s going to have the checkout lady or man. So, you’ve already got three people there. It's more likely to have friction.”

Ben said banks’ transaction records would mean they had data showing which bottle shops, bars and vape shops had been accepting payments on cards issued to under-18s.

Some banks sought to cast their actions in the context of an entire-of-country approach to alcohol sales.

BNZ's general manager customer assist, Martin King, said: “Under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, the primary legal responsibility for preventing alcohol sales to minors sits with retailers. Banks can be part of broader conversations, but effectiveness depends on a coordinated, multi-stakeholder approach.”

Kiwibank said: “As richer transaction data and digital identity tools evolve, we see real potential for more precise and consistent controls across the industry. We believe any future solution should be effective as a control and ideally implemented market wide.”

It is that market-wide solution Silas’ parents wish to see brought in.

However, they do not see that as a reason for banks not to act swiftly to reduce the number of illegal alcohol sales they are facilitating through their payment system by blocking bottle shops, bars and nightclubs quickly.

Sarah says Ben was a lovely boy who could talk to anyone, and was in such a hurry to grow into a man.

But, she says: “He is also every boy, and every girl.”

Since his death, she’s lost count of the number of people who have told her of their own teenage mistakes, telling her: “That could have been me.”

This is why there is a duty of care among adults, and institutions to look out for their interests.