Account Aggregator: How this network improves an average person's financial life, how is it different to Aadhaar eKYC data sharing?—know all about India's financial data-sharing system

The Ministry of Finanace last week unveiled Account Aggregator (AA) network in banking with eight of the India’s largest banks. Four banks—Axis, ICICI, HDFC, and IndusInd Banks — are already sharing data based on consent, while other four (State Bank of India, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IDFC First Bank, and Federal Bank) will start shortly. It has been dubbed by the ministry as a financial data-sharing system that could revolutionize investing and credit, giving millions of consumers greater access and control over their financial records and expanding the potential pool of customers for lenders and fintech companies. Account Aggregator empowers the individual with control over their personal financial data, which otherwise remains in silos, it said. 

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What is an Account Aggregator?  

An Account Aggregator (AA) is a type of RBI 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 AA network. Data cannot be shared without the consent of the individual.  There will be many Account Aggregators an individual can choose between.  Account Aggregator replaces the long terms and conditions form of ‘blank cheque’ acceptance with a granular, step by step permission and control for each use of your data.  

How will the new Account Aggregator network improve an average person's financial life? 

India's financial system involves many hassles for consumers today -- sharing physical signed and scanned copies of bank statements, running around to notarise or stamp documents, or having to share your personal username and password to give your financial history to a third party. The Account Aggregator network would replace all these with a simple, mobile-based, simple, and safe digital data access & sharing process. This will create opportunities for new kinds of services -- eg new types of loans. 

How is Account Aggregator different to Aadhaar eKYC data sharing, credit bureau data sharing, and platforms like CKYC? 

Aadhaar eKYC and CKYC only allow sharing of four ‘identity’ data fields for KYC purposes (eg name, address, gender, etc). Similarly, credit bureau data only shows loan history and/or a credit score. The Account Aggregator network allows sharing of transaction data or bank statements from savings/deposit/current accounts.  

What kind of data can be shared?  

Today, banking transaction data is available to be shared (for example, bank statements from a current or savings account) across the banks that have gone live on the network.