Who we are
Dark Arts is a New Zealand software consultancy that rescues and modernises financial systems. We have been operating since 1995 from Auckland to Seattle, London and everywhere in between. We work with financial services firms, including non-bank lenders, insurers and fintechs, and we specialise in systems that are business-critical, long-lived and too risky to replace outright.
What we do
System rescue, lending platform modernisation, core system integration and compliance systems throughout New Zealand and Australia.
Named Products
Spectra - External Diagnostics
Assay - deeper assessment
Event Horizon - Regulatory Radar
Who runs Dark Arts
Andrew Stanford had a background in metallurgy before moving into software. He has decades of experience in the financial systems sector and has been a software guru for over thirty years.
How to verify us independently
Dark Arts Limited is registered in New Zealand as company 670844, NZBN 9429038504280. The company record dates to March 1995 and identifies Andrew David Stanford as a director. You can verify these details through the New Zealand Companies Register. You can also review Andrew's professional history on LinkedIn and our published white papers.
How we work
We start with evidence rather than assumptions. Where appropriate, Spectra provides an external, read-only assessment of the public-facing parts of a system without requiring production access. For deeper work, Assay can examine source code, database schemas, configuration and logs in a controlled, permissioned environment.
We explain what has aged, drifted or become exposed, agree the priorities with you, and define a proportionate plan. That may mean stabilising an existing system, completing a stalled project, modernising it in stages or replacing only the components that genuinely need to change.
Work is offered at a fixed price where the scope is sufficiently clear. Where it is not, we divide it into controlled phases with evidence and decision points before further commitments are made. There is no generic rate card because the risk, access and condition of each business-critical system are different.
Dark Arts can deliver the remediation directly or work alongside your internal team and existing suppliers. The aim is to improve the system without unnecessarily disrupting live operations or discarding business knowledge that still has value.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Dark Arts a New Zealand company?
Yes, Dark Arts is a New Zealand software consultancy based in Auckland and registered with the New Zealand Companies Register.
How long have Dark Arts been operating?
Since March 1995 - over thirty years.
What kind of clients do you work with?
We specialise in the financial services industry and work with non-bank lenders, insurance companies, brokers, tenancy check companies and fintech organisations. Over the years Dark Arts have also worked with legal firms, aerospace companies and transport agencies.
Do you need access to our production system to assess our systems?
No. The assessment is read-only and passive by design, and it does not require access to your live production systems to begin. We work from source code, database schemas, configurations, logs and your website. This means the assessment carries no operational risk to a system that is, by definition, business-critical.
What is Spectra?
Spectra is Dark Arts' external diagnostic: a fixed-scope assessment that examines a system from the outside and produces evidence of where it has aged, drifted or become exposed without needing production access.
How do we start?
It starts with a read-only assessment scoped to your system and offered at a fixed price where the scope allows. We provide the evidence before committing to any remediation.