Payments Council of India (PCI), the apex body representing various regulated non-banking payment industry players and companies in the payments & settlement system, resolving industry level issues and barriers announced the appointment of Vishwas Patel, Chief Executive Officer, Infibeam Avenues as its new Chairman and Loney Antony, MD, Hitachi Payment Services as its new Co-Chairman. Vishwas was serving as its Co-Chairman of Payments Council of India since its inception and he takes over the position from Naveen Surya now holding the post of Chairman Emeritus. He will drive the agenda of creating a sustainable environment for the development of digital payments industry.

The industry has huge potential in our country and simultaneously my considerable efforts will be laid on leapfrogging the industry to great heights.

Speaking on the occasion, Vishwas Patel, Chairman, PCI, says, “I want to express my heartfelt thanks to all the members of the Payment Council of India. I am honored and humbled that they have placed their trust in me. With their trust, I will work tirelessly on PCI’s behalf to help address challenges, and to secure lasting and meaningful solutions to all the issues faced by our payments industry. The industry has huge potential in our country and simultaneously my considerable efforts will be laid on leapfrogging the industry to great heights.”

Vishwas, a veteran in the digital payments industry has been instrumental in driving the industry initiative of equitable distribution of Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) between acquirers and merchants. He has also spoken at several government and industry forums highlighting the challenges faced by the net banking, debit and credit cards industry and more. However, the new team of Vishwas, Loney and Naveen will aim at achieving the government’s target of growing the volume of digital transactions to 30 billion for the next financial year 2018-19. They also will lay considerable focus on ironing out the challenges faced by the industry like Implementation of interoperability of Prepaid Payments Instruments, reimbursement issues related to Debit Card MDR for transactions upto Rs.2000, and simplification of outward remittance regulations among others.

Naveen Surya, Chairman Emeritus, says, “’I would like to congratulate Vishwas and Loney. Both are innovators and great leaders, who understand the nitty-grittys of the industry. The digital payments industry in India has seen uncharted growths in the last few years and I am confident that under their able leadership, the industry will reach new milestones. I wish them all the success.’’