Egypt's Commercial International Bank (CIB) has issued the country's first chip-based MasterCard using EMV software and services supplied by Munich-based Giesecke & Devrient (G&D).
G&D, which has an office in Cairo, provided the bank with the MChip Lite V2.1 card processing solution along with project management services for its migration from magnetic strip cards to smart cards. Hisham Ezz Al-Arab, CIB chairman and managing director, says: "We have succeeded in complementing this project in a matter of a few months."
MasterCard says its Middle East and North Africa team was involved in the project since its inception and provided expertise in smart card implementation.
G&D's managing director in Egypt, Mr Samaha, says: "Smart cards offer unlimited opportunities for banks to increase their turnover and profitability through enhanced value-added services over the single card."