But what was missing — standard for that time — was any connection to his whakapapa, through either language or culture. At school in Alexandra, he recalled the only time his principal mentioned anything Maori-related was to comment they were skilled at driving trucks and bulldozers.
He discovered his mother’s grandparents would speak te reo Maori in the morning and would switch to English when their first child woke.
"It was a very natural disconnect that happened," he said.
The only link to his identity was the occasional 12-hour drive to Blenheim for a tangi.
Boarding at Otago Boys’ High School for secondary school, the only languages on offer were French, German and Latin.
A Pakeha friend keen to learn te reo "dug his heels in" and was allowed to do it by correspondence in the back of the geography class.
"There was still nothing there that connected me to my identity in any way," Mr Banks said.
Studying computer science at the University of Otago, he also did some Maori papers and that was when he got "a bit of an inkling" that it was something he was keen to come back to.
He had fond memories of his Dunedin days; the keen basketballer was in the Nuggets squad and also spent a year playing for the North Otago Penguins.
Moving to Japan with now-wife Melissa in 2004, as part of their OE, Mr Banks discovered it was hard to get a job apart from being an English teacher.
He decided to have a crack at Japanese using a repetitive learning methodology.
"I buried myself in that pretty deep and did a decent job ... learning a reasonable chunk fairly quickly," he recalled.
Later returning to Wellington, the couple — inspired by their language experience in Japan — decided to learn as much te reo as possible to teach their children. At home they spoke te reo to their three daughters, now aged 12, 14 and 16, and it remained their first language in the household.
It was also the inspiration for the establishment of their software company Plink in 2015.
Plink’s vision was to use technology to improve Maori lives through connection to identity, te reo and whakapapa.
His own experience with learning languages led him to realise that tech would provide an easier way to learn, he said.
Maori Language Commission funding was eventually achieved to help build the app — a "watershed moment".
Mr Banks gave away his day job, turning his youngest daughter’s bedroom into a office.
She had just started kura and Mrs Banks, who had a photography business prior to having children, became the company’s chief designer.
In parallel with his day job, Mr Banks also became involved in governance, initially in iwi governance roles, where he learned some good commercial skills, and it was a huge part of his cultural reconnection.
He became involved in Nelson-based Wakatu Incorporation, which has about 4000 owners, who descend from the customary Maori land owners. It has grown from a $11 million asset base in 1977 to more than $350 million. He currently serves on the board and its property subsidiaries.
He is also on the board of Network for Learning (N4L), a Crown-owned technology company that provides faster, safer internet for kura (schools).
In June last year Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced the appointment of Mr Banks as one of the new directors on the new statutory board of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.
Mr Banks acknowledged the "really challenging" times but relished the position.
He said there were not as many learnings when "things are plain sailing".
Covid had changed Plink’s model and they had "done a bit of retrenching" recently.
When the business got to the point they could take it anywhere, the couple decided to move to Nelson where they loved the lifestyle, the weather and, importantly, their daughters being able to grow up surrounded by their cousins and their whakapapa.
He said he had never done long-term career planning and his career had been all about being open to opportunities.
He was thrilled that his children’s relationship with their identity was "so far advanced" compared with what his had been. But he was not deeply aggrieved by that — it was "what society looked like".
His own subsequent connection had helped in both his commercial and governance careers.
