Gemplus, is to deliver one million plus smart cards to Itesa Group, an Italian bank. Intesa's service center is where the personalization of the cards is to take place.

The cards will be used as debit and credit payment cards, as well as Intesa's in-house system Moneta.

With the EMV migration in its pilot stages in the region, it is the first bank to deliver mass volumes of cards to the market.

EMV is a smart card payment standard that was created in 1996 by Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV), guaranteeing worldwide interoperability and security for payment. Benefiting card issuers, acquirers and cardholders, EMV is essential in the reduction of fraud and also provides opportunities for financial institutions to differentiate new services for cardholders.

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