PhonePe received an In-Principle Approval to operate as an Account Aggregator (AA) from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the company announced in a press release. The company added that this will clear the way for Walmart-owned PhonePe to launch its own AA platform. A PhonePe spokesperson said that more details will emerge gradually on how the company plans to make use of this approval and develop its platform. The approval is valid for 12 months during which PhonePe is expected to "put in place the technology platform, enter into all other legal documentations required to be ready for operations and report position of compliance with the terms of grant of in-principle approval to the Bank" as specified by the RBI. It will only be able to commence operations once the central bank is satisfied with its compliance following which a Certificate of Registration will be issued certifying its role as an NBFC-Account Aggregator. Once operational, PhonePe will be competing with the likes of licensed account aggregators like CAMSFinServ, Cookiejar Technologies, FinSec AA Technologies, and NSEL Asset Data. It must be noted that Perfios Account Aggregation Svcs and Yodlee Finsoft have also received in-principle approval from RBI recently, according to a Moneycontrol report. The report added that 12 banks and institutions such as the State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, LendingKart, among others, are at various stages of implementing the FIU and FIP framework. The account aggregator system facilitates financial entities to share customer information across various financial services after obtaining consent…
