IDEMIA has announced the launch of metal dual interface payment cards in the Middle East, calling it a first for the region.
The development is the product of a collaboration with Citibank and CompoSecure, a US-based manufacturer of secure cards. The new cards support both contact-based and contactless transactions.
In announcing the launch, IDEMIA suggested it’s aimed at meeting rising demand for metal, as opposed to plastic, payment cards, with the millennial demographic showing a particularly strong preference for the material.
“The recent growth in demand for metal cards and adoption of contactless payment solutions forecasts tremendous potential for the product in the Middle East,” said IDEMIA’s SVP of Financial Institutions for the Middle East and Africa, Julia Schoonenberg. “IDEMIA’s comprehensive portfolio of contactless payment metal cards is designed for consumers looking for premium products that reflect their discerning lifestyle choices.”
Schoonenberg added that IDEMIA’s card production involves “the latest techniques”, including engraving the decoration of metal materials.
The new offering may gesture toward a future stage of the development of IDEMIA’s new biometric payment card technologies. IDEMIA’s earliest such offerings are standard plastic cards – albeit with an embedded fingerprint sensor – but future efforts to target more affluent consumers specifically may see the company look to integrate metal materials into its manufacturing process for biometric cards. Of course, this is just speculation.
The launch comes just a week after IDEMIA’s announcement that it had received an order for recycled PVC cards from the UK’s Nationwide Building Society financial services organization.
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