To prove one’s creditworthiness, customers no longer have to produce physical documents, share confidential login details, or visit multiple sites and download information required by lenders. The framework has set in place a safe and convenient medium for customers to share their financial data between Financial Information Providers (FIPs) and Financial Information Users (FIUs).
Here’s how it works. AAs facilitate the transfer of data in a secure manner while retaining a record of the consent along with providing an option for rescinding consent. This way AAs have bridged the gap between the principle of customers being the exclusive owners of their data and its actual implementation.
Then there are FIUs – lenders in this case – who solicit customer consent keeping in mind customer convenience. Today, customers can register their consent by simply checking a box online. And once they do, FIPs, who are nothing but custodians of customer data, are obligated to share the data in standard, easy-to-consume formats. Despite FIPs having to bear a cost for participating in the AA ecosystem, the potential benefits serve as a compelling incentive. And as more and more FIPs participate in the AA ecosystem, the original mandate of enabling consent expands to inclusion — thanks to the rapid growth of alternate data.
As the AA framework expands to include diverse FIPs, customers will increasingly have the ability to share a wide range of alternate data, thereby enhancing their ability to prove creditworthiness. Customers can source their data from multiple FIPs and relay it to FIUs while retaining full control over consent management.
A recent illustration of this is the inclusion of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) in the AA ecosystem. This integration has implications in real-life situations. For instance, a senior citizen who has made significant contributions to the economy over several decades can now effortlessly obtain a loan against their pension when the need arises. With just a simple click, a senior citizen can authorise an FIU to access their pension data, and enable loan processing against their pension. This is how AA will empower more people to access financial services along with facilitating consent.On the consent front, however, the ecosystem has one more hurdle to jump — the ability to enforce a consent decree in case of a breach. In other words, a customer is still limited in his/her ability to ensure that an FIU uses the shared data only for the stated purpose. This is more a regulatory function and beyond the mandate of AA, yet imperative. The good news is that the ecosystem is taking an active interest in self-regulation, which I believe is the way to go.The author is CEO and Co-founder, FinBox.
