The Payments Council of India (PCI), an industry body for digital payment operators in the country, is in the final stages of submitting its independent application to become a self-regulatory organisation (SRO) for digital payments, under the Reserve Bank of India's mandate, said two sources aware of the development. The PCI, which operates under the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), will float a new not-for-profit entity which would serve as the SRO entity, and is looking to on-board various stakeholders and other industry associations as members apart from existing payments companies, they said on the condition of anonymity. IAMAI and iSPIRT not teaming up Last week, the Economic Times reported that the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and the technology think-tank Indian Software Products Industry Round Table (iSpirt) are respectively preparing a bid to form an industry body that will take of self-regulating the digital payments industry. iSpirt is a Bengaluru software think-tank that is closely involved in developing the Unified Payments Interface, BHIM and the India Stack set of public-facing software programs. The article said that iSpirt could float its SRO proposal through the Digital Collective for Empowerment, another digital payments industry body. However, people privy to internal discussions told MediaNama that iSpirt is not setting up its own not-for-profit to bid for an SRO license from the RBI. Additionally, in an email to MediaNama, Saranya Gopinath, co-founder of DICE, said that they "do not have any plans to apply for an SRO license." "There…
