India Standardizes Its Bank Data Network as JPMorgan Bars Outside AI Agents

India's account aggregator network, the consent-based system lenders use to pull a borrower's bank statements, is getting two structural changes before the end of 2026. The Reserve Bank of India has decided to make the aggregators interoperable by December 31, and Sahamati, the network's self-regulatory body, has set its first standard price, effective November 1. In the US, each bank still sets its own terms for third-party access, and JPMorgan Chase said on October 13 that it blocks outside AI agents from acting on its retail customers' accounts.

RBI moves to make aggregators interoperable

In its Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies on October 7, the RBI said it will implement interoperability among NBFC account aggregators (AAs) (All India Radio). Customers will be able to access and share financial information held with different providers through any aggregator they choose. A second measure will let SEBI-regulated depositories add bank deposit details, via the AAs, to the Consolidated Account Statements sent to demat holders. Both are expected to be in place by December 31, 2026 (Business Today).

The problem is one of bilateral connections. Each bank has had to onboard each new aggregator separately, a process with operational and legal steps that discouraged large institutions from connecting to all of them, Sahamati CEO B.G. Mahesh told MediaNama. A lender tied to one aggregator in many cases found its applicant signed up with another, he told Business Standard, which reported that industry executives expect interoperability to cut the resulting drop-offs. The network has 17 operational aggregators and 176 financial information providers, according to Sahamati's June 2026 newsletter.

A standard price from November 1

From November 1, institutions that pull data through the network will pay a standard fee under a single common contract, according to a Sahamati circular reported by Business Standard. It replaces the bilateral deals participants had struck with each other.

Lenders pay for each bank account whose data is successfully shared, and the amount varies with the number of months of data requested. For a seven-month bank statement, the benchmark used in the circular, the lender pays between ₹5.88 and ₹6.55. Of that, ₹2.80 goes to the bank holding the data and 40 paise to Sahamati, with the rest going to the aggregator.

Until now, banks have built and maintained the systems that send this data at their own cost, Business Standard reported. Under the new model, banks receive their share only if they meet a minimum monthly success rate, starting at 80% from December 1 and rising in later months. No participant may charge customers directly for sharing data through the network.

JPMorgan bars outside agents from moving money

Jamie Dimon set out the position on JPMorgan's third-quarter earnings call on October 13. "We're not going to allow just any outside agent to come in inside the company because it's too risky for the clients and for JPMorgan," he said, according to Banking Dive. A spokeswoman told CNBC the bank currently blocks external AI agents from operating on behalf of retail customers. "Because it is not safe, we do not permit third parties to access accounts by obtaining customers' banking credentials and logging in on their behalf," she said.

The block covers action, not data. Agents can still read limited information such as balances through Plaid or another connector that holds the customer's credentials, but they cannot send money or pay bills. The bank gave no timeline for letting outside agents transact. Dimon said customers who use such tools "should understand the risk," adding, "There's a liability transfer" (Banking Dive), and that JPMorgan uses AI agents internally and plans customer-facing ones (Forbes).

TechShorts covered UK, Indian and card-network approaches to AI agent payments in September. JPMorgan's position is a new kind of line, drawn by one bank through its own access policy.

Who sets the terms

The contrast is in who decides. In India, the central bank set the interoperability requirement and the self-regulatory body set one price for the whole network, with the bank's payment tied to how reliably it delivers data. In the US, JPMorgan told data aggregators in 2025 that it would charge for access, and Plaid agreed to pay under a renewed bilateral agreement whose amounts were not disclosed (Banking Dive).

The federal rule that would have settled the fee question is not in force. The CFPB's 2024 open banking rule barred data providers from charging for access, but a federal court in Kentucky has enjoined the bureau from enforcing it (ABA Banking Journal). The CFPB sent a rewrite to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in August (Consumer Finance Monitor), and no proposal text had been published at the time of writing.

The two systems are not like-for-like. India's aggregator framework covers consent-based sharing of financial information and does not move money, so it does not address JPMorgan's concern about agents that act. What they share is a move toward explicit terms: India has put a standard price on reading bank data, and JPMorgan has drawn a hard line between reading and acting.

What to watch

The fee schedule takes effect on November 1, and the 80% success-rate condition for bank payouts applies from December 1. Before the December 31 interoperability target, the open item is the implementation framework; Mahesh said whether existing aggregator handles and consents carry over depends on it. In the US, the next marker is publication of the CFPB's revised proposal, which is expected to address whether banks may charge for data access, a question the bureau reopened in its August 2025 advance notice (Cooley).