The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will allow interoperability among account aggregators from the end of December, enabling individuals to view and share information on their financial assets across platforms through a single account aggregator.
The move will allow customers to link bank accounts with demat accounts and access consolidated financial information through their account aggregator. It will also enable Sebi-regulated depositories to include bank deposit information in their consolidated account statements (CAS).
An account aggregator is a regulated fintech platform that enables the secure sharing of customers’ financial data between institutions with their explicit consent. It does not store, read or process customer data, but transfers encrypted information between financial information providers, such as banks, and financial information users, such as lenders.
RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said the central bank would facilitate Sebi-regulated depositories to include information on deposit accounts in their CAS.
“We are allowing interoperability among NBFC account aggregators, enabling aggregation of financial information through all account aggregators from one account aggregator,” Malhotra told reporters on Wednesday.
He said the move would address the fragmentation caused by the existence of about 15 account aggregators and allow customers to access information through any one of them. The facility will be implemented from the end of December.
Malhotra also said bank deposit information, which is currently missing from CAS, would be made available through account aggregators. The facility will initially cover banks that are already onboarded, with others to be added over time.
“Some of you would be getting CAS. It does not have information on bank deposits which is a missing piece,” he said. The RBI is facilitating access to information on bank deposits across onboarded banks through any one account aggregator, he added.
Malhotra said the move would give consumers a consolidated view of their financial assets and could also help in cases where bank deposits are overlooked after an account holder’s death.