Agriculture Bank, VISA cooperate to issue environment-friendly contactless payment cards

The Agricultural Bank of Egypt launched first ever environmentally friendly contactless credit card in cooperation with Visa, the world leader in electronic payments.

The new card was launched on the sidelines of COP 27 Sharm El Sheikh. It came within the framework of the Bank’s strategy to achieve sustainability upon its keenness to support and implement Egypt’s Vision 2030 for sustainable development and to contribute to the ongoing global efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change and reduce carbon emissions.

It was designed and produced in cooperation with VISA, G+D - Giesecke+Devrient and e-Finance with a unique and innovative design that offers developed securing solutions, as part of ABE approach for the ongoing development and upgrade of its cards range to produce unique designs and distinctive safety features.

For the first time in the Egyptian market, the new cards are made of plant-based polylactic acid (PLA). This gives the cards an edge over traditional plastic cards in terms of preserving the environment. The new cards are certified by international bodies and do not result in any harmful waste at any stage of its life cycle, from manufacturing through use or even when disposed of.

This makes the card more sustainable with carbon footprint of up to 73% lower than many conventional plastic cards.

Alaa Farouk, Chairman of  ABE, stated that the bank's issuance of an environmentally friendly credit card comes in conjunction with Egypt's hosting of the climate change conference held in Sharm El-Sheikh upon the bank's keenness to support all the state's efforts to achieve sustainable development.

He explained that Egypt has placed the goals of sustainable development strategy  at the forefront of its national priorities as it adopted a national plan that integrate and contribute to the implementation of the United Nations Agenda 2030 embodied in the sustainable development strategy Egypt’s Vision 2030.”

For her part, Ms. Malak Al Baba, General Manager of Visa Egypt, states that this partnership comes takes place within the framework of Visa's strategy to support various financial institutions in reducing carbon footprint while providing them innovative ways to help its partners achieve their goals of sustainable growth.”

She added, “We are pleased with our partnership with the Agricultural Bank of Egypt, one of the leading banks that support agriculture sector as one of the pillars of the growth of the Egyptian economy.”

For his part, Ahmed Assem, General Manager of the Banking Sector in Egypt and the Middle East at G + D, expressed his happiness in cooperating with the Agricultural Bank of Egypt in producing the first environmentally friendly credit card, which confirms the bank's keenness to achieve sustainability in its banking products.

He stressed that the Agricultural Bank of Egypt credit card is the first environmentally friendly credit card manufactured by the company for one of the banks in the Egyptian banking sector.

G + D is one of the world’s leading institutions in the field of smart card technology and solutions for the banking sector. From the beginning of its activity in Egypt decades ago, it has maintained a leading role as a partner for Egyptian banks and international financial institutions in the field of developing payment systems through many innovative solutions and the highest quality smart cards available in the world.