The account aggregator (AA) ecosystem has evolved considerably well in the last few years, but additional measures are required to improve the overall efficiency for all players, Sameer Shetty, president and head of digital business & transformation, Axis Bank, told FE.
“The ecosystem has come a very long way. In terms of FIUs (financial information users), we have over 200 members who are using data. Having said that, it still has a long way to go,” Shetty said.
Currently, there are banks where technical failures are large, Shetty said, adding that not all banks are providing information. Further, other kinds of institutions, including non-financial ones, also need to join the platform as currently only the banks are providing information, he added.
“If there are 12 AAs, as a bank, I need to integrate with all 12. Ideally, I should be able to integrate with one and other AAs should be interoperable. The good news is the government, RBI, AAs and banks are keen to take this forward. A lot of work is happening and I am sure we will see great progress,” Shetty said.
Axis Bank was the first lender to join the AA platform in late 2021, Shetty said, and has since developed six different use cases for lending using the platform, including personal loans, auto loans, home loans, two-wheeler loans, small business loans and credit cards. On a monthly basis, the bank passes loans in the higher double-digit crore range through these six products, Shetty said, without sharing the exact value of loans disbursed using AA-based underwriting.
Kotak Institutional Equities, in a report dated May 25, had said that lenders, including banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), have disbursed a total of `6,000 crore of loans through AA-based underwriting. About 8 million accounts have already been linked to account aggregators so far, while 10 million consent requests have also been raised, the report said.
Further, Axis Bank on Wednesday launched another feature named ‘One-View’ on its mobile application, which provides customers access to multiple bank accounts statements and transactions on one single platform, enabling them to track their balances and spends on a real-time basis.
Speaking on some of the bank’s new digital initiatives, Shetty said the bank is introducing a large number of features for non-Axis bank customers on its mobile app. Already today, non-Axis Bank customers can access the bank’s app and link their UPI ID and do UPI transactions, he said. Lastly, the bank has over 30 products that it offers digitally, which will increase going ahead, and some of the new products in pipeline include upgrading credit card on UPI product and introducing loans linked to UPI.