The Australian Payments Council has put digital identity management at the top of its list of priorities for industry development in coming years.The APC has released its Australian Payments Plan, which looks at how payments might evolve and is intended to guide the industry's strategic direction over the decade ahead.The Council's second priority is efficient management of the payment mix - code for phasing out cheques and, in the long term, maybe even cash.The third is keeping the industry up to the mark with emerging technology and trends.The APC was established last year as the strategic co-ordinating body for the payments industry. In May it issued a consultation paper calling for responses from the community to help it formulate its Australian Payments Plan.The APC said the industry needed to understand the opportunities presented by digital identity management for enhancing security and trust. This theme was pursued in a number of submissions to the Financial System Inquiry, several of which argued that Australia had fallen behind in the development of a "trusted digital identity" for e-commerce, digital payments and electronic delivery of government services."Principles for identity management need to be developed," the APC said. It has set itself the tasks of providing industry leadership on digital identity, working with the Government's Digital Transformation Office and developing standards for the way digital identity is treated.To manage the phasing-out of cheques, the APC will establish a senior working group with representatives from industry, regulators, government and the community to prepare a 'roadmap' for the transition.The APC will also work on industry policy to ensure efficient management of the decline in cash usage.To assist the industry keep up with innovation the APC will conduct regular assessments, research and reviews on emerging developments.The overriding technology theme in the Australian Payments Plan is that there will be a closer integration of payments with other networks. An example of the integration of payments into another network is the Uber system, where ordering a ride and paying for it are handled simultaneously.As payments become more embedded in this way, the idea of a payment changes from being a transaction to a "contextualized interaction", the APC said.