Russian bank Surgutneftegazbank (SNGB), has contracted with France's Gemplus for the supply of MasterCard M/Chip 4 EMV smart cards.
Gemplus's local partner in Russia, Cardhall Group, is delivering the Dynamic Data Authentication (DDA)-enabled cards, while Pronit is developing and implementing a card personalisation system.
Gemplus says the DDA-enabled cards were developed in partnership with MasterCard and can be used for offline mode transactions, where terminals are not connected to bank systems in real-time.
Andrey Korolev, VP and general director of MasterCard Europe, says the DDA-enabled cards offer "the highest security level available with offline payments. This is very important for the Russian market, where a lot of local payment systems work in offline mode".
Russia's Standard Bank received the world's first shipment of MasterCard M/Chip 4 EMV payment cards in May last year.