Synopsis
The Reserve Bank of India has recognized Sahamati as the Self-Regulatory Organisation for the Account Aggregator ecosystem. This move formalizes governance and operational standards for financial data sharing. Sahamati, a not-for-profit entity, will now oversee this crucial network. The ecosystem facilitates consent-based sharing of financial data, benefiting credit underwriting and customer assessment.Sahamati is a not-for-profit entity that powers the RBI-regulated NBFC-AA network, which enables consent-based financial data sharing between Financial Information Providers (FIPs) and Financial Information Users (FIUs). The data is used for credit underwriting, loan collections, customer assessment, and fraud checks. The recognition creates a formal industry-led mechanism for governance, operational standards, and coordination across ecosystem participants.
In April, Sahamati raised Rs 50 crore from banks including the State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, and Axis Bank; non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) like Aditya Birla, Bajaj Finserv, and DMI Finance; and fintech firms and stockbrokers such as Zerodha, Dhan, Angel One, and IndMoney.
The banks picked up between 7.5% and 8.5% stake each, and the brokers about 8% each. Wealth management startup Dezerv acquired 2% stake.
The AA ecosystem has more than 1,120 regulated financial entities, including 176 FIPs, 1,020 FIUs, and 17 AAs. More than 450 million consent requests have been fulfilled, with over 294 million linked accounts, and more than 290 million monthly data shares across lending, insurance, wealth management, and personal finance use cases, per RBI’s press release.
As the SRO for the AA ecosystem, Sahamati will help develop operational and technical standards, facilitate dispute resolution, support interoperability, and coordinate engagement among ecosystem participants.
"The Account Aggregator framework represents a fundamental shift in how financial information is accessed and shared in the digital economy. As data becomes central to financial participation, frameworks that balance innovation with accountability will become increasingly important," said R Gandhi, former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and chairman of Sahamati in the press release.
