The financial landscape in India is witnessing a transformative shift with the rise of the Account Aggregator (AA) network, a system designed to allow individuals to securely share their financial data with banks, NBFCs, insurers, and other financial institutions. Modeled on the simplicity and impact of UPI for payments, the AA framework removes friction in accessing and transferring financial information, enabling more efficient lending, personalized financial services, and broader financial inclusion. According to BG Mahesh, CEO of Sahamati Foundation, the network not only addresses privacy and security concerns but also lays the foundation for future applications of consent-driven data sharing across sectors such as taxation, health, and education. The network’s potential to empower citizens and foster innovation in financial services is now being recognized across India and even globally.
Revolutionizing Financial Services Through Account Aggregators
BG Mahesh, an internet pioneer and the CEO of Sahamati Foundation, explains that the Account Aggregator system works much like UPI did for payments. Previously, financial data sharing was cumbersome, involving physical documents, PDFs, or manual verification, which often slowed lending or financial advisory processes. The AA framework simplifies this by allowing customers to provide explicit consent for their data to flow securely to designated financial institutions, while banks, NBFCs, and insurers gain verified information that accelerates decision-making. This consent-driven approach ensures that only necessary data is shared, is time-bound, and can be revoked by the customer at any point, protecting both privacy and security.
The technology behind AA is robust and fully functional, with most major banks now integrated into the network. While adoption initially lagged due to concerns over losing customers or operational challenges, awareness campaigns and demonstration of benefits have helped banks recognize that data sharing actually enhances lending, lowers processing costs, and expands access to financial products. The AA framework enables banks to offer “sachet loans” or microloans to MSMEs and individuals who were previously underserved due to high processing costs relative to small loan amounts. This facilitates financial inclusion by allowing lenders to underwrite loans more efficiently with verified data.
Sahamati Foundation, as a Section 8 company, plays a pivotal role in orchestrating the AA ecosystem. It provides common frameworks, operational templates, and guidance for Financial Information Providers (FIPs), Financial Information Users (FIUs), and Account Aggregators themselves. By acting as a neutral industry body, Sahamati helps resolve operational challenges, publish best practices, and conduct workshops to ensure smooth adoption across all members. Importantly, Sahamati does not regulate; it catalyzes ecosystem growth while ensuring interoperability and scalability. Membership fees and sponsorships support its operations.
Ensuring Privacy, Security, and Trust in Financial Data Sharing
Privacy is central to the AA model. Every data-sharing request requires explicit, granular consent from the customer, specifying which accounts, which data, the purpose, and the duration for which data can be accessed. Customers can view all their active consents on an AA dashboard, enabling transparency and control. Consent can be granted for as short as 15 days, or revoked anytime, empowering users with active data governance. Unlike informal channels like sharing PDFs or uploading statements, AA ensures end-to-end encryption, digital signatures, and audit trails, making data sharing far more secure and accountable. Account Aggregators serve solely as consent managers and cannot store or misuse data, similar to how UPI facilitates payments without retaining users’ funds.
The AA framework currently focuses on asset data, leaving liabilities aside, with applications in multiple financial domains. Lending remains the primary use case, allowing rapid processing of microloans and personal loans. Wealth management and personal finance applications benefit from consolidated views of bank accounts, mutual funds, pensions, insurance policies, and tax records. Businesses can seamlessly share GST and income tax information with auditors, improving efficiency and reducing compliance overhead. The consent-based model has potential applications beyond finance, including education and health records, highlighting its versatility as a secure data-sharing infrastructure.
Adoption of the AA framework has grown steadily. Since the first AA license was granted in 2017, India has onboarded 16 Account Aggregators, over 150 Financial Information Providers, and around 700 Financial Information Users. By June 2025, more than 24 crore consents had been processed, covering 18 crore accounts. Approximately Rs 1.67 lakh crore has been disbursed through the AA system across 189 lakh loans, with an ongoing monthly flow of around Rs 15,000 crore. Personal loans and consumer durable loans lead usage, while unsecured business loans and motor loans are increasingly utilizing the framework.
India’s model is distinctive globally, as it is regulator-backed, consent-driven, interoperable, and built on common technical standards. Unlike Europe, where Open Banking focuses mainly on payment access and remains fragmented across banks, or the US, where data sharing is largely unregulated and inconsistent, India has created a unified financial data highway. This inclusive model spans banks, insurance, pensions, securities, and GST, allowing comprehensive, secure, and standardized financial data access. Countries worldwide are observing India’s success, and some are attempting to replicate its framework, though the decade-long development journey reflects the careful engineering and regulatory alignment required to achieve such scale.
Despite these advances, challenges remain. Awareness among citizens about the existence and benefits of AA is still limited. Many banks and fintechs need to actively integrate AA functionality into their platforms, and the ecosystem must continue innovating to develop products that leverage financial data responsibly.
The vision behind the AA framework is the empowerment of citizens through control over their financial data. For decades, individuals had little visibility or access to their own financial information. AA shifts this paradigm, giving users the ability to access, share, and utilize their data for personal benefit. This transforms access to credit, insurance, wealth management, and pensions. For instance, farmers can secure instant loans based on crop receipts and bank statements, retirees can consolidate pension and insurance details seamlessly, and young professionals can monitor investments in real-time. By giving power over data back to individuals, AA fundamentally changes the way financial services operate and expands opportunities for financial inclusion and economic participation.
The Account Aggregator ecosystem represents more than just a technological innovation; it is a shift in governance, privacy, and trust within financial services. With clear consent mechanisms, strong encryption, and regulator oversight, citizens can confidently use their data without fear of misuse. The framework also enhances efficiency for financial institutions, enabling better underwriting, tailored advice, and improved customer experience. Over time, the AA system is expected to grow beyond banking and insurance, encompassing sectors such as taxation, education, and healthcare, demonstrating its potential as a universal platform for consent-driven data sharing.
Sahamati Foundation’s ongoing role ensures that the AA ecosystem continues to expand inclusively and sustainably. By fostering collaboration between banks, NBFCs, fintechs, and other financial players, Sahamati helps maintain interoperability, standardization, and operational excellence. Its efforts to raise awareness, provide best practices, and address operational bottlenecks accelerate adoption and encourage innovation within the ecosystem. The result is a comprehensive financial infrastructure that benefits both citizens and institutions, while promoting trust, transparency, and accountability across the sector.
BG Mahesh’s insights underscore that Account Aggregators, much like UPI, are revolutionizing financial inclusion by making complex data-sharing processes simple, secure, and efficient. The network’s expansion and adoption demonstrate the potential to transform not only financial services but also broader socio-economic interactions, empowering individuals and small businesses alike. By democratizing access to financial data, AA is enabling new business models, better lending practices, and personalized financial services, all while prioritizing privacy and consent.
As India’s Account Aggregator ecosystem continues to grow, the framework’s potential to extend into non-financial sectors becomes increasingly tangible. The emphasis on consent, security, and transparency lays a foundation for innovative applications in education, health, and public services. By providing a robust, secure, and user-centric mechanism for data sharing, the AA network is positioning India as a global leader in consent-driven financial and personal data infrastructure, serving as a model for other countries seeking to balance privacy, efficiency, and financial inclusion.
Through its unique combination of regulatory backing, technological innovation, and citizen empowerment, the Account Aggregator framework is redefining the financial ecosystem in India. From instant microloans to consolidated financial dashboards and personalized advisory services, the AA network is enhancing access, convenience, and trust for millions of users. Its evolution marks a paradigm shift in how data is managed, shared, and utilized, setting the stage for broader adoption across multiple sectors and demonstrating the transformative potential of consent-driven data sharing in the 21st century.
