Four years of Account Aggregator framework: How India’s financial dashboard is shaping up

There are 16 licensed AAs operational which include, CAMSFinServ, CRIF Connect, Protean Account Aggregator, Perfios Account Aggregation Services and others.

BG Mahesh, CEO of Sahamati said, “Four years ago, the Account Aggregator framework was just taking its first steps. Today, it has emerging as a cornerstone of India’s digital public infrastructure, enabling millions to access credit and financial services with consent, trust, and transparency.”

Demystifying Account Aggregators

AAs are RBI-regulated entities that facilitate consent-based sharing of financial data between individuals and lenders. Through digital consents, users can securely share financial details from multiple banks and institutions, streamlining processes like lending. The framework is anchored in security, transparency, and user consent, featuring three core players - Financial Information Providers (FIPs), who hold the data (e.g., banks, mutual funds, insurance companies); Financial Information Users (FIUs), who utilise it (e.g., lenders or advisors); and account aggregators, who act as secure intermediaries.

“The Account Aggregators system eliminates the need to manually gather and submit financial documents or build separate API integrations. Instead, lenders receive a consolidated and real-time view of a borrower’s financial health, enabling smarter, faster decisions while keeping individuals in full control of their data,” said Sachin Seth, Regional Managing Director for CRIF India and South Asia.

When choosing an AA, trust is crucial. Customers should opt for one that safeguards consent and enables easy management and revocation at any time.

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A Comprehensive Financial Dashboard

AAs serve as an online platform offering a holistic view of one's financial life, accessible only to explicitly permitted parties. Users can link various assets, including multiple bank accounts, National Pension Scheme (NPS), equity holdings, insurance policies, and mutual funds (MFs).

The mechanism is straightforward - An FIU such as a bank or financial planner requests consent through the platform. Upon approval, the user is redirected to their tied AA, which authenticates via OTP and displays linked accounts. Users then select specific data to share and define the sharing duration. The relevant FIP sends a separate OTP for confirmation. For loans, the process is now easier, often limited to bank details.

Loan Application Simplified

Historically, loan applications were bogged down by cumbersome paperwork - including income proofs and bank statements - leading to prolonged verification, errors and frequent rejections, particularly for small business owners and self-employed individuals with sparse financial records.

“Through AAs, borrowers can grant digital consent to instantly share financial data with lenders. This eliminates paperwork, shortens processing times and may boost loan approval rates,” said Seth. He added, “Real-time verified data helps lenders better assess creditworthiness, reducing default risks and expanding credit access to underserved communities and new-to-credit customers.”

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Benefits in Lending

The advantages of AAs in lending are multifaceted. They grant immediate access to verified financial data, slashing processing times and facilitating swift credit decisions and disbursements.

Individuals with non-traditional income or limited credit history can leverage alternative data to enhance approval prospects. Data sharing occurs via encrypted, consent-based channels, prioritising privacy and user control. Eliminating manual handling of documents reduces administrative burden for lenders and borrowers alike while uniform formats simplify analysis and minimise errors.

“AA is an encrypted data transfer service based on explicit customer consent, enabling secure exchange between regulated entities while ensuring data privacy and control,” said Seth.

“Lenders can leverage customer banking profiles via AA, along with credit bureau data, to optimise credit risk strategies for loan disbursement and monitoring,” he added.

Enhancing Wealth and Financial Planning

“AAs allow wealth managers and financial advisors by providing a dashboard view of investment portfolios and accounts. This aids in analysing existing investments and tailoring plans to individual risk appetites and future goals,” said Lt Col Rochak Bakshi, Founder of True North Finance, a financial and investment planning firm.

Advancements and Growth Opportunities

Bertram D’souza, Chief Product & Innovation Officer at Protean eGov Technologies said, “In the past year, the AA ecosystem has seen notable improvements, with data quality from FIPs getting stronger and the number of linked accounts reaching an all-time high. As the framework matures, there are also clear opportunities for further growth. Expanding into new data types such as EPFO and Income Tax records will make the ecosystem more comprehensive, while enabling access to corporate accounts with multiple signatories can unlock wider business use cases.”

D’souza adds that closer alignment with adjacent sectors and recently introduced digital personal data protection (DPDP) act, a consent management framework will be critical to strengthening interoperability, building consumer trust, and creating a seamless flow of data across the financial ecosystem. Together, these advancements can unlock the next level of scale for AAs in India.

Key Challenges

According to Bakshi, despite being innovative, AA system faces challenges in achieving widespread adoption. Not all banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and financial information providers (FIPs) are fully integrated with every AA, which hinders seamless data sharing. PSU banks and traditional institutions often struggle with technical issues and inadequate infrastructure to handle large data volumes, resulting in inconsistent experiences and data-sharing failures. Furthermore, many FIPs lack standardised APIs, causing delays in creating comprehensive customer profiles for loans or financial advice. Institutions also face integration challenges across multiple AAs, with limited incentives to invest in the necessary infrastructure.

Pathways to Improvement

To strengthen the AA framework, Bakshi recommended several key measures, including standardising APIs, enforcing robust consent and privacy, conducting data quality audits, improving interoperability, offering participation incentives, launching public education campaigns, establishing clearer grievance redressal mechanisms, and ensuring strong regulatory oversight.