Account Aggregators in India: Importance, Working Model and FAQs

Juliet D'cruz

Account Aggregators in India: Importance, Working Model and FAQs

The ‘Account Aggregators in India’ have been said to introduce a new era in India’s financial landscape. Still, many analysts believe that it is RBI’s way of empowering and strengthening the data transfer needs of various stakeholders. The account aggregation is designed to help millions of people to get access to digital data, and many fintech companies in expanding their customer pool. The primary aim of the introduction of account aggregators in India is to streamline the financial data points into a unified system that can be used for better analysis.   

What are account aggregators in India, and how do they work? Let’s understand this in detail through this blog post.   

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What are Account Aggregators in India? 

On 2nd September 2021, the Account Aggregator (AA) framework was introduced in India by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with the application in eight major Indian banks. These banks include Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, IDFC First Bank, HDFC Bank, Federal Bank and IndusInd Bank. Apart from this, there were four other NBFCs (Non-Banking Financial Companies) that have received approvals by RBI to operate account aggregators in India, name as- CAMS Finserv, Finvu, OneMoney, and NESL. The customers can choose the account aggregators from the available options and can download their apps.   

As per RBI, AA is a non-banking financial third-party company that provides services or a platform for the customer to store and retrieve their financial secured data digitally. It allows the flow of data between the Financial Information Providers (FIPs) and Financial Information Users (FIUs).  

How Do Account Aggregators Work? 

The working model of account aggregation consists of a three-tier structure, namely as: -  

  • Account aggregators  
  • Financial Information Provider (FIP)  
  • Financial Information User (FIU)  

FIP refers to the data repository where millions of customers’ data are stored. It can be a bank, NBFC, mutual fund or insurance repository. On the other hand, FIU is an entity registered with or regulated by any financial sector regulator. FIU consumes the data provided by the FIP to offer several services to the consumers.   

Benefits of Using Account Aggregators in India

  • It reduces the need for individuals to stand in the long queues of banks, use internet banking portals, share their passwords and share their financial documents.  
  • This will allow customers to take advantage of several financial services on a single portal. One can easily manage their finances and see the analysis from one app.   
  • The account aggregators will help the banks to reduce transaction costs and allow them to offer more customized services and products to the customers. And also offers lower ticket size loans.   
  • This will reduce fraud by introducing end-to-end data encryption in data sharing and by securing digital signatures.   
  • The account aggregator framework makes it possible for banks, tax authorities, insurers, and other financial firms to collect the data of their customers who have given consent. This will enable them to better understand the customers and ensure smoother transactions.   

Uses of Account Aggregators 

Following are some of the uses of account aggregators in India, which will transform how people view and deal with their finances daily.   

Loan Lending 

A loan applicant has to undergo daunting and cumbersome manual processes of acquiring the essential documents and furnishing them in a unified format to a bank or NBFC to avail of the loan. Furthermore, there are certain things involved due to which the data risks being incomplete, tampered with or forged altogether. Here, account aggregators make it easy for customers and lending agencies to manage this data via a single click. Also, the AA framework fetches the necessary documents from different agencies and furnishes them to a lender when the customer gives consent.   

Personal Finance Management 

Many people lack the knowledge to handle personal finances and are inefficient in managing the entire financial data. Thanks to the account aggregators framework, the customer can view the embedded system of their finances altogether and get the confidence to initiate personal finance decisions efficiently.   

Wealth Management 

Wealth managers across India have adhered to the traditional method of sourcing critical documents of their clients in the physical format. This method is not only time-consuming but also comes with a lot of challenges and difficulties. Account aggregators in India can completely revolutionize the wealth management market by bringing a smart platform for clients to provide access to their financial details and wealth managers. This can save a lot of time and enhance productivity too.     

Way Forward

Open banking has the potential to change the way credit is distributed among small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in India, who are currently underserved when it comes to financial products. The framework of AA can be extended to cover data from other domains as well, making open banking a more viable option for credit distribution in India.  

Get registered with Anumati for account aggregation more simply and easily. Anumati is a consent manager offered by Perfios Account Aggregation Services Pvt. Ltd under the RBI license. After registering, the app automatically searches for your current savings and fixed deposit accounts in the participating banks linked to your registered mobile number. You can select the account that you want to link with your account aggregator from the discovered accounts. The best feature of Anumati- an account aggregator in India, is you can link as many accounts as you want. It will fetch your confidential bank data securely in an encrypted format. Thus, in this way, you can easily manage your finances under one page. Join this revolution to know about account aggregation and download this app today! 

FAQ’s  

  1. Does Account Aggregators are safe to use?  

The account aggregators will only move your financial data from one institution to another with an individual’s permission. As such, they do not see your data. Furthermore, the data is sent through end-to-end encrypted format, which means your critical financial data is secure.   

  1. Are account aggregators in India only for individual?  

No, account aggregators are for both individuals and organizations.   

2. Which companies can participate in the AA ecosystem?  

Companies registered or regulated by any of the four regulators can be FIP or FIU-  

  • Reserve Bank of India (RBI)  
  • Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI)  
  • Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI)  
  • Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)  

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