Pragati the Sahamati Newsletter February 2025

11 Apr 2025

February’25 Newsletter

Pragati – The Sahamati Newsletter

CEO’s Desk

The financial services landscape is witnessing a profound transformation, driven by timely, secure, and consent-based data sharing through the Account Aggregator (AA) ecosystem.

To reaffirm this development, we are pleased to announce the release of the Lending Report for H1 FY25, which highlights this evolution. The report reveals that 10.52% of all personal loans were facilitated through the AA framework—a strong testament to its growing adoption.

This release coincides with a pivotal regulatory development: the RBI’s decision to invite applications for a Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) for AAs. We welcome this step, as it marks a significant stride towards strengthening the governance of the AA ecosystem.

As AAs continue to redefine financial data sharing, another technological force is reshaping the industry—our friendly digital ally Artificial Intelligence (AI)! While AI has been forcing us to rethink the processes of multiple sectors, the financial services industry is also now at the forefront of its adoption, leveraging AI to drive efficiency, personalization, and risk management like never before.

The convergence of AI and AA presents a potential frontier—where intelligent algorithms can analyze consented, aggregated, varied data types to unlock deeper financial insights, streamline lending decisions, and enhance fraud detection.

This synergy is accelerating digital transformation and paving the way for greater financial inclusion. The teamwork will not only accelerate digital transformation in the financial sector but also democratize access to advanced financial services. By enabling more accurate risk assessments and personalized offerings, this technological convergence is breaking down barriers to financial inclusion, particularly for individuals and small businesses that have been traditionally underserved by the formal financial system.

As we navigate the future of finance shaped by emerging technologies, the next crucial step is to enhance awareness and accelerate the adoption of Account Aggregators (AAs). To propel this mission forward, Sahamati is launching a dedicated awareness campaign—an initiative aimed at educating and empowering users through diverse content formats, including podcasts, short- and long-form AV content, an explainer series, and more.

We invite ecosystem stakeholders to collaborate and contribute to this effort, helping individuals fully understand the transformative potential of AAs in financial empowerment. If you’d like to be part of this initiative, reach out to us at info@sahamati.org.in.

Together, let’s continue building an inclusive, responsible, and innovative financial ecosystem—one where individuals can truly harness the power of their data for a stronger financial future.

Key Stats

Ecosystem Stats

Cumulative Consent Request Fulfilled- 166.18 million
Cumulative Accounts linked on AAs-131.60 million
REs Live on AA- 675
FIPs Live on AA- 176
FIUs Live on AA-617
FIPs available on four or more AAs- 89

Sahamati Services

Sahamati Certification Framework – REs-550+
Prod Entries in the AA Registry- 951
Grievances handled (cumulative) -73380
Grievances resolved (cumulative) – 37764
Dashboards disseminated-323
No. of Fair Use Templates Published- 12

The AA Impact Story:

In a remarkable testament to the power of Account Aggregator (AA) integration, one of India’s leading NBFCs has witnessed significant business growth and operational efficiency.

Driving Disbursement Growth: With AA-powered digital financial data access, the NBFC has achieved an additional ₹310 crore in monthly disbursements. The impact spans multiple lending segments, with disbursements expected to increase by 5%-10% across:

Consumer Durable Loans
Personal Loans
SME Loans
Two-Wheeler Loans

Driving Cost Efficiency & Financial Inclusion: By utilizing AA-based bank statement retrieval and analysis, the NBFC has reduced operational costs by 65%, cutting per-statement costs from ₹35 to ₹12. This has optimized underwriting, enabling faster decision-making, improved risk assessment, and enhanced portfolio quality. Beyond operational gains, AA adoption has empowered customers with better financial literacy, improving their understanding of credit health and borrowing capacity. As AA adoption expands, its role in fostering efficiency, transparency, and responsible credit growth continues to transform the lending landscape. Read More..

Latest in Finance: AA & Beyond :

Government Launches New Digital Credit Assessment Model for MSMEs

The Ministry of Finance has introduced a New Credit Assessment Model for MSMEs, as announced in the Union Budget 2024-25. The model aims to streamline loan appraisal processes by leveraging digitally fetched and verifiable data, enabling faster and more transparent credit access for small businesses. It integrates multiple digital verification mechanisms, including PAN authentication via NSDL, mobile and email verification through OTP, API-based GST data access, bank statement analysis via the Account Aggregator (AA) framework, ITR verification, and credit bureau checks. Additionally, it incorporates fraud detection mechanisms, commercial and consumer credit insights, and due diligence processes to enhance risk assessment.

While the model highlights AA’s role in bank statement analysis, the AA framework extends beyond bank statement analysis. By enabling secure, consent-based financial data sharing, AA is also powering advancements in wealth management, budgeting, insurance, mutual funds, securities, and personalized financial services. As digital finance evolves, such initiatives reinforce the potential of AA-powered solutions in driving financial inclusion, improving credit access, and enhancing decision-making for businesses and individuals alike. Read More.

Sahamati Monthly Recap:

The Pune edition of the Account Aggregator (AA) Roadshow, held on February 13, 2025, brought together industry leaders, product heads, and technology teams to explore the latest advancements in financial data sharing and digital transformation. The event featured deep dives into emerging trends, including regulatory updates, market adoption, and data-driven financial services. Experts highlighted the growing role of active data types across lending, wealth management, and insurance, showcasing real-world use cases and live demonstrations of successful AA implementations. Discussions also focused on best practices for AA adoption, emphasizing funnel conversion strategies, fair use implementation, and operational efficiency. To know more, click here..

Release of the lending report- With Top 8 lending FIUs–that account for 62% of the consents fulfilled for lending–self-report disbursement of ₹462 billion in loans in H1 FY25, and extrapolating the numbers to 100% consents, we estimate the AA ecosystem to have facilitated ₹745 billion in disbursement. To read the report, click here..

In February 2025, significant enhancements were implemented to prepare the sandbox and support the Proof of Concept (PoC). Key technical improvements included integrating Keycloak with Superset (MIS & SaaNs) for user authentication, and establishing system monitoring using Prometheus and Grafana. Automated email notifications were introduced to alert users about entity secret expirations, while Discord-based alerts now inform teams about high CPU/memory usage and service restarts. Additionally, security measures were bolstered by upgrading Keycloak from version 16.1.1 to 26.0.7 and addressing critical findings from Vulnerability Assessment and Penetration Testing (VAPT). These efforts collectively enhanced system performance, security, and reliability. Read More..

The Central Registry onboarding documents have been updated to align with Fair Use guidelines, expanding the Consent Parameters Table in the Customer Experience Checklist to include attributes from the Fair Use Template Library. Participants must include their AA in onboarding requests, as consent screens are proprietary to AAs and their involvement is critical for seamless implementation. All other processes remain unchanged, and the revised checklist is attached for reference, with the updated document soon available on GitHub. Read More..

AA Bytes: Common Myth-Busters

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