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NEWSLETTER · SPECIAL EDITION |
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The Reserve Bank of India’s recognition of Sahamati as the Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO-AA) marks a landmark moment for India’s Account Aggregator (AA) ecosystem. It signals the growing maturity of a framework that has steadily evolved from an ambitious vision into critical digital infrastructure for India’s financial sector. In this special edition of Varta, we celebrate this important milestone and explore how the ecosystem continues to create new opportunities for inclusive and trusted Open Finance.
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Over the past few years, India’s AA ecosystem has been increasingly recognized globally as an example of how digital public infrastructure can power forward secure, consent-led data sharing at population scale. We have an important milestone in that journey, with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recognizing Sahamati as India’s Self-Regulatory Organization for the country’s AA ecosystem.
We are deeply honored by this recognition. More importantly, it reflects the maturity of the ecosystem and the collective efforts of all participants who have worked to build adoption, trust, and scale since the framework’s inception. For Sahamati, it marks a natural progression in the role we have played as an industry alliance to promote the AA framework since our incorporation in September 2019.
The AA ecosystem is unique in bringing together regulated entities across banking, securities, insurance, pensions, and taxation under an operational and technological network. In this context, Sahamati’s recognition is particularly significant. As India’s first SRO representing a cross-sectoral ecosystem spanning multiple financial regulators, Sahamati reflects the collaborative foundation on which the AA framework has been built.
As SRO-AA, Sahamati will function as a neutral, industry-led institution responsible for developing operational and technical standards, facilitating dispute resolution, supporting interoperability, strengthening ecosystem discipline, and enabling coordinated engagement across participants.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the regulators, members, ecosystem participants, partners, and the Sahamati team, whose commitment and collaboration have made this milestone possible. This recognition belongs to the entire ecosystem.
As we look ahead, this is not only important for the AA ecosystem but also for India’s broader leadership in digital public infrastructure. Together, we have the opportunity to demonstrate how open finance can be scaled responsibly and create a model that inspires similar efforts around the world.
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The Pulse: Ecosystem Stats |
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474+ M
Consents Fulfilled
23+ M
Monthly Consents
176
FIPs Live on AAs
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304+ M
Accounts Linked
10+ M
Monthly Accounts Linked
1046 FIUs Live on AAs
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302+ M
Monthly Data Shares
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1087 Live REs on AA
17 Total Operational AAs
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RBI Recognition Marks a New Phase for India’s AA Ecosystem
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The Reserve Bank of India’s recognition of Sahamati as the Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO-AA) establishes a formal industry-led framework to support the continued growth of India’s Account Aggregator ecosystem.
As the ecosystem scales across lending, insurance, wealth management, pensions, and other financial services, the SRO framework will help strengthen governance, promote interoperability, support dispute resolution, and foster coordinated engagement among participants.
The milestone comes as the AA ecosystem surpasses 1,120 regulated entities, 294 million linked accounts, and 450 million fulfilled consent requests, underscoring its emergence as one of the world’s largest consent-based financial data-sharing networks. The recognition reinforces the importance of building not only digital infrastructure at scale, but also the institutions and governance mechanisms needed to ensure its responsible and sustainable growth.
Save the Date for SamvAAd 2026 ↗️
India’s Open Finance Summit opens in Mumbai on 14th & 15th October, 2026. Once again, our third successful edition will offer a forum where leaders, innovators, builders, and ecosystem voices exchange ideas, share insights, and collaborate on the future of consent-based data sharing in India.
Stay tuned to know more about #samvAAd2026
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Stakeholder Engagement Across Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata As part of our ongoing ecosystem engagement efforts, we conducted a series of in-person meetings and workshops with key stakeholders across Mumbai and Pune, including Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Tata Capital, L&T Finance, Kissht, and Cosmos Bank. These interactions focused on strengthening awareness, addressing implementation challenges, and accelerating adoption of the Account Aggregator framework across the financial services ecosystem.
We also partnered with Accion and Sa-Dhan to host a dedicated workshop for Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in Kolkata, bringing together industry participants to explore the potential of the AA framework in enhancing access to finance and driving greater operational efficiency. These engagements continue to play an important role in expanding ecosystem participation and fostering a deeper understanding of consent-based data sharing. | |
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Held the Next Session with the COBOF Online ProgrammeThe session with the fifth cohort of the COBOF- Cambridge Open Banking and Finance for Regulators Online Programme course was an engaging interaction wherein Sahamati provided an in-depth exploration of the evolving landscape of Open Finance and Open Banking to the participants, tracing its development over the last few years. The session highlighted India’s digital public infrastructure (DPI) approach to Open Banking and Open Finance. Participants included policymakers and regulatory representatives from central banks worldwide.
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Speaking to NDTV Profit, Sahamati CEO B.G. Mahesh discusses what’s next as the RBI approves Sahamati as the Self-Regulatory Organization (SRO) for the Account Aggregator (AA) ecosystem. He emphasizes that this is a continuation of the journey Sahamati began seven years ago.
A Mint explainer examines the implications of the Reserve Bank of India’s recognition of Sahamati as SRO for the AA ecosystem. The article traces the evolution of the AA framework into one of the world’s largest consent-based financial data-sharing networks and features insights from Sahamati CEO B.G. Mahesh on the ecosystem’s next phase of growth.
On National Technology Day, Chief Innovation Officer and Head of Sahamati Labs Kiran Gopinath speaks about the true potential of innovation that is unleashed when trusted digital infrastructure responsibly scales access to financial services.
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From the Ground: The AA Impact Story |
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A leading NBFC wanted to enhance its customer onboarding and underwriting workflows. To achieve this, it implemented the AA framework, thereby enabling secure, consent-based access to financial data.
The AA Impact: This transition instantly helped the bank reduce its reliance on manual bank statement uploads.
It ensured:
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Faster, reliable underwriting
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Reliable turnaround time (TAT)
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Improved portfolio quality
The AA-driven outcome: The NBFC has now deployed AA across its B2B, salaried, and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) segments, improving credit and decision quality. | |
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Sahamati Foundation is a member-driven industry alliance
formed to promote and strengthen the Account Aggregator ecosystem in
India.
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