Explanation: Account Aggregator (AA) is a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) engaged in the business of providing the service of retrieving or collecting financial information pertaining to the customer.

• No financial information of the customer is retrieved, shared or transferred by AA without the explicit consent of the customer.
• AA transfers data from one financial institution to another based on an individual’s instruction and consent. Registering with an AA is fully voluntary for consumers.
• Entities may enrol themselves on AA framework as Financial Information Provider (FIP) viz. banking company, non-banking financial company, asset management company, depository, depository participant, insurance company, insurance repository, pension fund etc. and as Financial Information User (FIU) which is an entity registered with and regulated by any financial sector regulator.
• In this direction, RBI has issued the Master Direction viz Non-Banking Financial Company – Account Aggregator (Reserve Bank) Directions, dated September 02, 2016. At present, RBI has granted a Certificate of Registration to six companies as AA.

Source: Economic Survey 2023