Polish bank taps Gemalto for massive EMV contactless rollout
01 December, 2010
category: Contactless
PKO Bank Polski is partnering with Gemalto to migrate its entire portfolio of Visa debit cards from magnetic stripe technology to EMV contactless.
PKO Bank Polski S.A., the largest financial institution in Poland with 1,211 branches and 1,938 agencies serving 8.5 million customers, began deployment of the new technology in September 2010. The bank plans to issue around 6.5 million Visa payWave cards to its customers by the end of 2011.
The new cards will allow customers to tap and pay for purchases of 50 Polish Zloty ($17) or less at thousands of acceptance points including department stores, fast-food restaurants, cinemas, bookstores or pharmacies.
According to Gemalto, PKO Bank Polski S.A. is the first bank in Poland to convert an entire card portfolio to contactless, leading the way to the introduction of EMV/contactless payment in the country.