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Latest events and updates about Account Aggregator ecosystem
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August 2023 was an ‘eventful’ month! In addition to the Pragati session on new FI types, the ecosystem participants held a few open houses and discussions on pertinent themes in the AA Network. Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) experts and market players came together to discuss foundational themes in the AA Network. The “Scaling Open Networks” session aimed to create urgency in the ecosystem to usher network trust by enabling network-wide interoperability in infosec, reconciliation & settlement, commercials, and legal aspects of the ecosystem. The Governance for Data Empowerment, co-hosted by Sahamati and Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, was to kickstart conversations about the AA ecosystem’s governance and the network facilitator’s mechanisms and responsibilities to phase into a governance entity. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023 (DPDPA), one of the most awaited and consequential legislation for the AA ecosystem, finally reached fruition. In the DPDP parlance, AAs are consent managers in the financial markets. The Act adds a layer of legislative backing to the AA Ecosystem, rendering legitimacy in the eyes of the consumers. This development has poised the network for its next phase of ramp-up. Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) released a consultation paper to define and collate FIU use cases in the securities market. Sahamati has sent their response after conducting a month-long market feedback exercise. The consultation paper by SEBI was the first step towards the governance of data usage in the AA ecosystem by a financial sector regulator (FSR). These recent legislative and regulatory developments will be step-changes for the Account Aggregator ecosystem. The cumulative consents raised on the AA Network reached 73.62 million, showing a 16.24 million increase or 28% month-on-month growth. Cumulative consents successfully fulfilled in the same month reached 20.22 million, with a 4.56 million increase or 29% growth compared to the previous month. The total number of Financial Information Provider (FIPs) increased by six, from 86 to 92, while the total number of Financial Information Users (FIUs) increased by 24, from 249 to 273, by August 2023. FIUs are highly motivated to shift towards utilizing bank statements through AA mode in order to eliminate fraud, thereby allowing them to pass on these advantages to consumers. FIUs have reported fraud rates ranging from 5% to 35% when processing bank statements during the loan application process. This results in substantial expenses incurred for screening and detecting fraudulent applications. Approximately 0.5% to 4% of the loan portfolio is estimated to be bad loans caused by falsified bank statements.
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20.22 million Consent requests fulfilled
| 18.84 million Accounts linked on AA | |
440+ FIs Actively engaged in AA adoption
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273 FIs Live on AA | |
92 FIPs
Live on AA | 31 FIPs Available on 4 or more AAs
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240 FIs 11 TSPs Sahamati Certification Framework | 147 Signatories AA Participation Terms | |
1,031 UAT 399 Prod Entries in AA Registry
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4,925+ Grievances handled
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840+
Grievances resolved | 260+ FI Dashboards disseminated
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Pilot Project of CGAP, Sahamati, and India Post
CGAP-hosted a workshop on it’s pioneering pilot program with Sahamati and India Post Payments Bank (IPPB). Set to revolutionize lending in rural India, this collaboration aims to empower rural customers with instant, unsecured loans through digital technology and Account Aggregators (AAs). Leveraging IPPB as a Loan Service Provider, loans can now be disbursed in 10 minutes, reducing TAT from 10-20 days relying on the extensive Business Correspondent (BC) network, including over 225,000 daak-sevaks. The program’s visionary goal extends to creating credit guarantee programs from subsidies, fostering financial inclusion in peri-urban areas and beyond, and promising an equitable and prosperous India.
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ADVOCACY AND COLLABORATION
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Governance for Data Empowerment
Sahamati and the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy co-hosted an event on ‘Governance f0r Data Empowerment’ to deliberate on themes relevant to the governance of the AA ecosystem in India. Guest speakers included luminaries like Shri Nandan Nilekani, Dr. Pramod Varma, Shri Rahul Matthan, and R. Gandhi, who provided invaluable insights. Dr. Arghya Sengupta and Manjushree RM of the Vidhi Centre deep-dived into their ‘Nurturing a User-Driven Governance Entity (N.U.D.G.E.) for the AA Ecosystem’ report. The roundtable discussion with the audience centered on the pressing need to nurture a user-driven governance entity for the AA ecosystem, aligning closely with the insights presented in the Vidhi report.
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ADVOCACY AND COLLABORATION |
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Building Evidence on India’s DPI
World Bank, Sahamati, and the Center for Digital Public Infrastructure (CDPI) co-hosted a workshop aimed to kick-start impact assessment exercises to track progress regularly, with a lens of ‘access to credit within the AA Ecosystem. The event gathered international economists, researchers, government officials, industry players in the AA ecosystem and distinguished researchers from institutions like Oxford, Cambridge and International Monetary Fund. The event featured keynote addresses by India’s Chief Economic Advisor Shri V Anantha Nageswaran, the World Bank’s India country director Auguste Tano Kouame, and Bill Roberts, the former head of the UK Open Banking Competition and Markets Authority, currently a Fellow at the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance.
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Scaling Open Networks Open House
The Open House on "Scaling Open Networks" hosted by Sahamati was a dynamic gathering that explored the realms of interoperable protocols and trust procedures. A fireside chat with Dr. Pramod Varma brought forth his point of view on unbundling of transaction chains by democratizing computational devices and internet connectivity, which will lead to networks enabling P2P transactions and a shift from bilateral to network trust. This was further followed up with a a panel discussion on strengthening of the "Network-Trust model" in the AA framework by enhancing legal, information security, and operational alignment across the network.
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GST on AA: Refresher Webinar
GSTN is live on the AA Network, and multiple FIUs have initiated the implementation of GST data via AA in their lending journeys. The "GST on AA: Refresher Webinar" explored the transformative impact of Account Aggregators (AAs) and GST data on India’s MSME sector. The webinar delved into the schema and data details, such as the GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B, and the insights they offer into outward supplies, self-declared income, and taxpayer behavior as key indicators for loan repayment potential. The discussion emphasized the role of GST data in driving financial inclusion through AAs by empowering lenders and streamlining borrower approval.
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Pragati: Depositories on AA
The recent Pragati session highlighted the significance of “Depositories as Financial Information Providers (FIPs) in the Account Aggregator (AA) Network.” The session opened with keynote speech by Mr Nehal Vora, MD & CEO at CDSL followed by a presentation on the AA ecosystem. Diverse use cases of demat data– lending to wealth management to insurance were discussed and the advantages of fetching data on the AA Network over the Consolidated Account Statements (CAS). Both CDSL and NSDL are live with more than 9 AAs each enabling a huge number of demat accounts on the AA framework.
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