Customer data fully safe in India: Sitharaman

New Delhi, November 23

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday assured that customer data shared with account aggregators (AA) is completely safe in India. Concerned over the slow movement of the AA scheme, she said, “It is not as much as I would want to see. It can be better, which means either the building of awareness exercises are not sufficient, adequate” or there is a need for simplification of technology.

Account aggregators just a pass-through

Account aggregators can’t hold data. They are just a pass-through. Neither the beneficiary customer nor the bank can sit on it through the AA. —Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister

“Banks, both public and private, have reviewed it with me once. Banks have become a member or a part of this account aggregators working, and it has actually helped,” she said at the ‘DATE with Tech’ event here.

Allaying concerns about data security, she said, “Initially, there were some apprehensions that possibly, account aggregators are going to sit over data bank. They cannot hold data. They are just a pass-through. Neither the beneficiary customer nor the bank can sit on it through the AA. They will deal with it only for the purpose of giving credit”.