Account Aggregators: Know If Your Bank Has Joined The System. Here’s How It Will Benefit Customers

Eight banks that have joined the system are-Axis, ICICI, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IDFC First Bank, and Federal Bank

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New Delhi: The government has recently launched the Account Aggregator system to facilitate sharing of financial information in a real-time and data-blind manner between regulated entities to make lending and wealth management a lot faster and cheaper.

What is an Account Aggregator?

An Account Aggregator is a type of Reserve Bank regulated entity (with an NBFC-AA license) that helps an individual securely and digitally access and share information from one financial institution they have an account with to any other regulated financial institution in the same network. Data cannot be shared without the consent of the individual. An individual can choose between many Account Aggregators.

Which banks have joined so far?

Eight banks that have joined the system are-Axis, ICICI, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IDFC First Bank, and Federal Bank.

How does it aim to improve financial life?

There are several hassles in our financial system. Be it sharing physically signed and scanned copies of bank statements or managing to notarise or stamp documents, the Account Aggregator network would replace all these requirements with a simple, mobile-based, simple, and safe digital data access and sharing process. 

Which account aggregators got approval?

Some of the account aggregators that have received approval from the RBI include CAMSFinServ, Cookiejar Technologies Pvt Ltd, FinSec AA Solutions Pvt Ltd and NSEL Asset Data Ltd, among others.

Can you decide on sharing data?

Remember that registering with the aggregator is fully voluntary. If the bank the consumer is using has joined the network, a person can choose to register on an AA, choose which accounts they want to link, and share their data from one of their accounts for some specific purpose to a new lender or financial institution at the stage of giving ‘consent’ via one of the Account Aggregators. You have the option to reject the consent to share a request at any time. Also, if you have accepted to share data in a recurring manner over a period (eg during a loan period), the direction can be revoked at any time later .

How can a customer get registered with an AA?

You can register with an AA through their app or website. AA will provide a handle (like username) that can be used during the consent process.

As of now, four apps are available for download (Finvu, OneMoney, CAMS Finserv, and NADL) with operational licenses to be AAs. Three more have received in-principle approval from RBI (PhonePe, Yodlee, and Perfios) and are likely to launch the apps soon.

What new services can you access through the AA network of data sharing?

The two major services expected to see improvement are getting access to loans and money management.