Account Aggregators are planning to introduce interoperability, allowing banks, NBFCs, and other financial institutions to exchange customer data seamlessly, eliminating the need for individuals to open accounts with multiple aggregators.
Sahamati, an industry body within the Account Aggregator ecosystem, is running a pilot programme to test interoperability. This will ensure that once a customer has given consent through any Account Aggregator, their financial data can be accessed across different financial institutions, even if those institutions are linked to different aggregators.
Speaking to FE, BG Mahesh, CEO of Sahamati, said: “Based on the discussions at the Participatory Governing Committee on Interoperability, we are running a pilot project (SahamatiNet), an intervention to engender interoperability in the ecosystem. By integrating with SahamatiNet, Financial Information Users (FIUs), Financial Information Providers (FIPs), and Account Aggregators can seamlessly connect with all other entities on the network.” “This eliminates the need for multiple integration points, significantly reducing the integration and operational efforts for members,” he said.
A seamless process will also elevate the customer experience within the AA ecosystem, leading to higher usage in the long-term, he added.
For institutions, interoperability will create a unified data-sharing environment, enabling them to access customer financial data from various sources without the need for separate integrations with each data provider.
Currently, a customer is required to sign up with multiple Account Aggregators to complete transactions.
Account Aggregators enable customers to share financial data across institutions with explicit consent. Through this consent management service, they act as a single point of contact for customers to give, manage, review, and withdraw consents from FIUs to access their data from FIPs.
According to a report released recently by Sahamat, lending firms have used the Account Aggregator framework to facilitate loans worth Rs 42,300 crore from September 2021 till March 2024, with a cumulative average loan ticket size at Rs 1,00,237 for the same period.
There are 15 Account Aggregators including Perfios Account Aggregation Services, PhonePe Technology Services and CAMSFinServ.
Currently, there are 163 FIPs on the account aggregator system, which includes banks, insurance firms, mutual funds, depositories and pension funds.
Sahamati is also working on defining Fair Use templates that set limits on data usage, while simultaneously developing the technological infrastructure to detect and enforce adherence to these templates programmatically. These measures aim to reduce data misuse, positioning the account aggregator ecosystem to strengthen the financial sector against fraud and abuse, thereby creating a safer environment for both institutions and consumers.