the interests register
Who is in the room
The organised interests that seek to shape India's financial policy — industry bodies, think tanks, foreign lobbies, and (for balance) the consumer side. Every entry is a fact of existence and a public role; positions are recorded only where documented.
Industry bodies
| Interest | Sector | Documented role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ASSOCHAM | cross-sector | Industry chamber; files consultation responses across financial-sector regulation through committees and task forces. | site · source |
| Confederation of Indian Industry | cross-sector | Industry chamber; files consultation responses across financial-sector regulation through committees and task forces. | site · source |
| FICCI | cross-sector | Industry chamber; files consultation responses across financial-sector regulation through committees and task forces. | site · source |
| Indian Banks' Association | banking | Association of banks and the banking interest; engages regulators on banking rules; standard commenter on RBI consultation papers. | site · source |
| Internet and Mobile Association of India | internet | Industry body for internet and mobile businesses; parent under whose aegis PCI was formed; files consultation responses and policy positions across digital payments and platform regulation. | site · source |
| NASSCOM | IT | IT-industry body; self-published its feedback on RBI's Charges-in-Payment-Systems discussion paper (Oct 2022), arguing that zero or low fees can deter innovation and competition — a documented position on the UPI pricing question. | site · source |
| Payments Council of India | payments | Apex payments-industry council formed in 2013 under the aegis of IAMAI; self-describes as representing 90%+ of the payments industry; runs committees (merchant aggregators & acquirers, payment processors, networks) and publishes policy-position pages on regulation. | site · source |
Foreign lobbies
| Interest | Sector | Documented role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| US-India Strategic Partnership Forum | cross-sector | US business forum advocating for member companies in India including financial services; engages on fintech and digital-economy policy with Indian regulators and government. | site · source |
Think tanks & policy shops
| Interest | Sector | Documented role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Digital India Foundation | digital policy | Policy foundation working on digital-economy issues incl. payments and platform regulation; files submissions and op-eds in regulatory debates. | site · source |
| Dvara Research | financial inclusion | Research institution focused on financial-systems design for low-income households; publishes on customer-protection architecture in payments and credit. | site · source |
| Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy | legal policy | Independent legal-policy think tank; self-published its submission to RBI's 2019 payment-gateways/aggregators discussion paper — including the delegated-legislation argument on the PSS Act. One of the few commenters whose RBI consultation position is public by its own choice. | site · source |
| iSPIRT Foundation | digital public infrastructure | Non-profit software think tank behind India Stack advocacy; registered in UFF's member roster (SROTrac). A policy NGO with an unusual seat at the table: builds and pitches the infrastructure the state then regulates. | site · source |
Consumer & research side
| Interest | Sector | Documented role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| CUTS International | consumer policy | Consumer-interest NGO (Consumer Unity & Trust Society) that files comments in financial-sector consultations from the user's side of the table. | site · source |
SROTrac layer (rule-borrowers — rosters live there)
| Interest | Sector | Documented role | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Finance Industry Development Council | nbfc | RBI-recognised SRO for NBFCs; per SROTrac's tracking the most active consultation respondent among the recognised SROs. Roster and governance tracked at SROTrac. | site · source |
| Fintech Association for Consumer Empowerment | fintech lending | RBI-recognised fintech SRO (Aug 2024); responds to digital-lending consultations. Roster and governance tracked at SROTrac. | site · source |
| Foreign Exchange Dealers' Association of India | forex | RBI-recognised SRO (Jan 2026) of authorised forex dealers; writes its own market rulebook. Tracked at SROTrac. | site · source |
| Microfinance Institutions Network | microfinance | RBI-recognised SRO for NBFC-MFIs (2014); H.R. Khan (former RBI DG) was appointed first chairman of the Code for Responsible Lending steering committee in micro-credit — see Doors. | site · source |
| Sa-Dhan | community finance | RBI-recognised SRO (2015) for community-development finance institutions. Tracked at SROTrac. | site · source |
| Sahamati | account aggregator | RBI-recognised SRO for the account-aggregator ecosystem; chaired since 2025 by former RBI Deputy Governor R. Gandhi — a documented revolving-door row (see Doors). | site · source |
| Self-Regulated PSO Association | payment aggregators | RBI-recognised SRO (Nov 2025) of payment system operators founded by practitioners. Tracked at SROTrac. | site · source |
| Unified Fintech Forum | fintech | RBI-recognised fintech SRO (Sep 2026; born as DLAI); its member roster is the who's-who of fintech policy interest. Tracked at SROTrac. | site · source |
Layer discipline: RBI-recognised SROs keep their rosters in SROTrac (rule-borrowers). They appear here only as layer links — the same institutions also lobby directly, which is exactly why the two layers are cross-referenced.