Russia’s national telecommunication operator Rostelecom and Bank Saint Petersburg announced last Thursday the issue of their first co-branded bank cards with microchips containing the electronic signature of the cardholder. Certified by the FSB, Russia’s Federal Security Service, the cards are being produced in partnership with Mastercard and Sitronics, the largest producer of microelectronic devices in the country.
The new chip embedded bank cards are a response to recent changes in Russian legislation on electronic signatures. In addition to offering the same advantages as a standard bank card, the new cards will enable Russian citizens secure access to the country’s e-government service portal gosuslugi.ru.
Initiated in June this year, the project took only months to materialize in its test phase. Sitronics expects to produce 50 million chips by 2017 using its new ultra high tech 90 nanometer production process.
