New Delhi, Sep 2 (IANS) At least 112 financial institutions have gone live on the Account Aggregator (AA) framework, both as financial information providers (FIP) and financial information users (FIU), while 56 have gone live solely as FIP and 410 as FIU, Finance Ministry said on Tuesday.

Over 2.2 billion financial accounts are now enabled for secure, consent-based data sharing through the AA framework, with 112.34 million users having already linked their accounts, underscoring the growing scale and trust in this transformative initiative, the ministry said in a statement.

The AA framework was officially launched on September 2, 2021, establishing a secure, consent-based system for financial data sharing.

In 2016, the Reserve Bank of India issued the Master Directions for the Account Aggregator (AA) ecosystem.

The AA Framework allows users to aggregate their financial information (like bank accounts, investments, loans, etc.) from multiple sources and share it with service providers (lenders, wealth managers) for services like loan applications or financial planning.

AAs act as intermediaries, ensuring data privacy and user control through encrypted, permission-driven data sharing.

During G20 India Presidency in 2023, AA was recognised as a foundational Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) serving as the data exchange layer, complementing the identity (Aadhaar) and payments (UPI) layers.

The role and impact of AA have been acknowledged in key G20 documents, including the “Policy Recommendations for Advancing Financial Inclusion and Productivity Gains through Digital Public Infrastructure” (2023). Its significance is also detailed in the “Report of India’s G20 Task Force on Digital Public Infrastructure” (July 2024)”.

“Since then, the ecosystem has grown rapidly and is witnessing accelerated adoption across banking, securities, insurance and pension sectors, strengthening India’s DPI,” said the ministry.

The AA ecosystem is poised to unlock new frontiers in formal credit access, especially for MSMEs and personal lending, contributing meaningfully to India’s journey towards Viksit Bharat at 2047.

–IANS

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