Account Aggregator Gaps: Startup Lessons

The Promise of Account Aggregators: A 2026 Reality Check

When the Account Aggregator (AA) system launched in India in 2021, it was hailed as the missing piece in India’s digital finance puzzle. The idea was revolutionary — give users control over their financial data and let them share it securely with lenders, insurers, or wealth advisors. By 2026, over 3 crore user consents have been issued, yet the ecosystem still struggles to scale sustainably. Through Account Aggregator Framework, startups are now asking a crucial question: why isn’t AA the breakout success it promised to be?

The core concept remains strong. The AA network, built under RBI’s regulatory sandbox, connects Financial Information Providers (FIPs) like banks, insurers, and NBFCs to Financial Information Users (FIUs) — entities requesting access to user data for credit, investment, or analysis. A user’s consent enables encrypted, time-bound data sharing. It’s India’s version of “open banking,” but with stronger privacy rails.

However, five years in, founders admit that adoption isn’t keeping pace. Despite support from the RBI and NPCI, transaction volumes through AAs remain low. Startups that built on AA rails — digital lenders, neobanks, and personal finance apps — are discovering that the model’s real challenges aren’t just technical, but behavioral and structural.

Insight: Fintech infrastructure succeeds not when it’s built — but when it’s trusted and used.

According to Sahamati, the industry alliance managing AA adoption, fewer than 200 fintechs have gone live with fully functional AA APIs. While the network’s coverage is growing — with SBI, HDFC, Axis, and 80+ banks onboarded — many still face issues like latency, incomplete data fields, and inconsistent consent journeys.

What Startups Misjudged: The Operational and UX Gaps

Through Data Consent Architecture, founders learned that the AA experience feels futuristic in theory but fragmented in practice. The biggest gap? User friction during consent flows. Most apps report high drop-off rates when users are redirected to unfamiliar AA portals mid-journey. The leap from “I approve” to “I understand what I’m approving” remains wide.

Three major startup pain points:

1. Complex Consent UX: The average consent screen includes 10+ technical terms — from “data type” to “validity period.” For Tier-2 users, this looks like legal jargon, not empowerment.
2. Incomplete Data Availability: Not all banks share the same data granularity. For example, salary and transaction tags are often missing, limiting AI-based credit scoring.
3. Limited Use-Cases Beyond Lending: Most startups built AA for loan underwriting, ignoring broader use cases like wealth management, insurance analytics, or SME accounting.

According to PwC India’s Fintech Design Audit 2026, 68 % of apps using AA see users drop off before granting consent. The ecosystem’s biggest technical success — data portability — has become its design bottleneck. Startups now realize they must design consent experiences like they design payments — seamless, instant, and understandable.

Tip: Consent isn’t compliance paperwork — it’s part of the product experience.

Another overlooked challenge is data standardization. The AA network relies on the Financial Information (FI) schema to structure datasets. But not every FIP uses the same tagging or categorization, leading to inconsistencies that break automated analysis pipelines. This forces startups to build expensive middleware layers just to clean and map data correctly.

Policy Meets Practice: Where the AA Network Stalled

Despite regulatory goodwill, the AA framework remains in an early adoption phase. Through Fintech User Onboarding, many startups blame the slow rollout on a lack of institutional incentives. Banks see AA as a compliance obligation, not a growth tool. Meanwhile, fintechs view it as a backend infrastructure, not a user proposition. The result: fragmented implementation.

Structural gaps slowing down AA scale:

• Uneven FIP Readiness: Some major banks still offer partial integration or delayed data responses.
• No Standard Metrics: There’s no unified dashboard to measure how many live consents convert into actual data pulls.
• Missing Public Awareness: Unlike UPI, AA never had a “campaign moment.” Most consumers don’t even know such a system exists.

Interestingly, RBI’s 2025 update to the AA Master Directions allowed new verticals — telecom, tax, and mutual fund data — to be included in the ecosystem. Yet interoperability remains limited. Experts say the gap is not in regulation but in coordination. Without synchronized adoption by large incumbents, startups remain dependent on patchy data availability.

Insight: India’s open-finance rails are only as strong as their slowest participant.

According to the 2026 BIS–RBI Joint Fintech Report, the average data retrieval time through AA is 14–18 seconds — too long for instant credit journeys. Moreover, user consent expiry (typically 90 days) limits recurring use-cases like credit scoring or cash-flow analysis. Without better auto-renewal or long-term consent options, business models struggle for retention.

Rebooting Trust and Design: Startup Playbook for 2026

Through Open Finance Ecosystem, founders are now pivoting from “infrastructure-first” to “experience-first.” AA’s next phase will depend on startups turning compliance rails into usable experiences. Here’s how leading players are adapting:

1. Simplified Consent Journeys: Fintechs like Jupiter and Fi Money are redesigning consent flows in vernacular languages, showing users clear “before vs after” data usage summaries. Early pilots have doubled consent completions.

2. Embedded AA APIs: Instead of redirecting users to third-party portals, new SDKs allow in-app consent management, improving UX continuity and trust.

3. AI Data Mapping: Startups like Decentro and Setu are building AI layers to harmonize raw AA data, making insights plug-and-play for lenders and advisors.

4. Cross-Domain Collaboration: Wealth and insurance apps are integrating AA feeds to offer unified financial dashboards, moving beyond lending-centric use cases.

The RBI’s upcoming Open Finance Blueprint 2026 is expected to expand AA frameworks to non-financial sectors like energy and telecom, widening scope for B2B fintech innovation. This could finally unlock “consent-driven commerce” — personalized offers and insights powered by verified financial data.

Tip: Open data doesn’t build ecosystems — open design does.

For startups, the lesson is clear: AA success depends on empathy, not just APIs. Borrowers and investors don’t think in schemas or XML — they think in trust, time, and transparency. By building human-centered consent journeys, startups can help India’s AA framework fulfill its founding promise.

The future of Account Aggregators in India won’t be defined by regulation alone — but by startups that turn compliance into confidence.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Account Aggregator framework?

It’s an RBI-regulated system that allows users to securely share financial data across banks and fintechs through consent-based digital channels.

2. Why has adoption been slow?

Due to inconsistent bank integrations, low user awareness, and friction-heavy consent UX that discourages completions.

3. Which startups are leading AA innovation?

Players like Setu, Decentro, and Finvu are building APIs and middleware that simplify data access for fintechs and NBFCs.

4. What are key lessons for fintech founders?

Design consent flows for comprehension, automate compliance reporting, and expand beyond lending to wealth and insurance data services.

5. What’s next for Account Aggregators in 2026?

RBI’s Open Finance Blueprint could expand AA to telecom, energy, and tax data, enabling more diverse and scalable fintech models.