India’s FinBox Unveils Account Aggregation Product for Loans

India’s FinBox unveiled what the company said is one of the country’s first account aggregators — systems that let potential borrowers prepare and upload one set of financial documents and then allow access to the online file from multiple potential lenders. FinBox systems connect lenders to the aggregated financial files of potential borrowers.

The FinTech stated in a news release that through an arrangement with licensed account aggregator Finvu, “FinBox has further strengthened and consolidated its credit intelligence portfolio that already boasts a robust risk assessment and alternate data decisioning engine.”

A news release issued by FinBox further states: “The FinBox stack now integrates account aggregator information, credit bureau scores, alternate data, device data and almost 5,000 other metrics to comprehensively assess potential borrowers.”

The service could soon handle as many as six million loan applications annually, FinBox stated.

According to FinBox, the account aggregator ecosystem lets potential borrowers decide which potential lenders should see their financial information and how much of it should be made available to any lender or group of lenders.

“The Account Aggregator framework promises to bring a radical transformation in India’s lending space. It will allow lenders to assess a wider selection of data points to determine a borrower’s creditworthiness, thus bringing underbanked sections of the population into the fold of formal lending. Besides, the ease and security with which it enables data sharing will give the lending industry a major boost, with borrowers becoming more willing to share their data with financial institutions,” Rajat Deshpande, chief executive and co-founder of FinBox, said in a prepared statement.

Munish Bhatia, co-founder of Finvu, said in another statement: “We’re excited to be working with FinBox to enable the Account Aggregator framework on their platform. Lending is, at its core, a transaction that’s based on trust. And through this partnership, FinBox is set to strengthen and optimize the process of consent-based data sharing – a win for the company and for the borrowers it serves. Finvu is proud to partner and enable yet another cutting-edge technology use case in the FinTech space.”