Account aggregators

Customers will soon be able to view all their financial holdings in a single online window. The RBI has published draft guidelines for companies that will provide such aggregator services to individuals. RBI said, “At present, persons holding financial assets, such as savings bank deposits, fixed deposits, mutual funds and insurance policies, do not get a consolidated view of their financial asset holdings, especially when the entities fall under the purview of different financial sector regulators. Account aggregators would fill this gap by collecting and providing the information of customers' financial assets in a consolidated, organized and retrievable manner to the customer or any other person as per the instructions of the customer.“
Aggregating information will not pose any security risk because this will allow customers to only view their holdings and not transact. Secondly , the aggregators will not have access to the data and will not store any information but will facilitate a consolidated view. Those who choose to avail the facility will have to pay a fee to the aggregator company .
Under the draft guidelines issued, the aggregator companies will be a new category of non-banking finance companies. To be eligible to obtain a licence as such an NBFC, the company will need to fulfil the eligibility criteria which includes having a minimum net worth of Rs.2 crore. Promoters will have to incorporate a separate company as the entity will not be allowed to engage in any other business other than aggregator services.