Glossary · Finance & banking
Account Aggregator meaning
An Account Aggregator moves a customer's financial data, such as bank statements, to a lender only with explicit consent. Here is how the RBI framework works.
How does an Account Aggregator work?
RBI's Master Direction on NBFC Account Aggregators sets up four parties. The customer owns the data. A Financial Information Provider (FIP), such as a bank, NBFC, insurer, depository or GSTN, holds it. A Financial Information User (FIU), an entity regulated by a financial sector regulator such as a lender, wants it. The Account Aggregator sits between them and moves the data only when the customer approves a specific request. For a lender, this replaces collecting PDF statements over email, and credit appraisal software for NBFCs can pull account-aggregator data into the loan file where consent allows, next to bureau data, GST returns and ITRs.
What does the customer agree to in an AA consent?
Every request is a standard consent artefact. Under the Master Direction it records:
- who the customer is
- what kind of financial information is requested
- the purpose of collecting it
- who will receive it
- when the consent was created and when it expires
The customer can revoke consent. The AA may not ask for or store bank passwords or PINs, and financial information it accesses must not reside with it.
What does an AA loan journey look like? A worked example
Illustrative only. An MSME owner applies for a working capital loan.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Request | The lender, as FIU, raises a consent request for 12 months of statements from two current accounts, for loan assessment, for a one-time fetch |
| 2. Approve | The owner reviews the request in their AA app and approves it for both accounts |
| 3. Fetch | The AA collects the statements from both banks, as FIPs, and passes them to the lender in encrypted, structured form |
| 4. Analyse | The analyst works on machine-readable transactions instead of retyping scanned pages |
Because the data comes straight from the bank, edited PDFs are not a risk in this route, though the analyst still has to read the transactions for related-party credits and circular entries.
What is an Account Aggregator often confused with?
- AA vs credit bureau. A bureau holds repayment history reported by lenders. An AA holds nothing and only carries data the customer releases.
- AA vs screen scraping. Scraping logs in with the customer's credentials. The AA route never takes passwords.
- Consent once, data forever. Each consent has a purpose, a scope and an expiry. Repeat or periodic fetches must be stated in the consent.
- Every institution is live. Coverage depends on which banks and other providers have joined as FIPs. Check before you design a journey that depends on one.
To see how AA data feeds underwriting, read bank statement analysis for loans. For the rest of the file, see the loan file document checklist.
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Where this shows up in our work. AutoCredit: Statements, GST, bureau and AA into one file; a memo against your policy bands; same-day field verification. Book a 30-minute working session with an engineer.
Questions
What is an Account Aggregator in simple words?
It is an RBI-registered company that, with your permission, fetches financial data such as bank statements from your bank and sends it to a lender or other regulated entity. It is not allowed to keep the data.
Is the Account Aggregator framework safe?
The RBI framework requires explicit consent for each request, bars AAs from taking passwords and from keeping the data they carry, and lets customers revoke consent. Customers should still read who is asking and why before approving.
Is an Account Aggregator the same as a credit bureau?
No. A credit bureau stores repayment history that lenders report about you. An Account Aggregator stores nothing and only moves data you choose to share, for a stated purpose and period.