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Setec Won Polish Bank’s EMV Card Tender
 Setec has won the international tender of Polish BRE Bank’s EMV smart debit/credit cards. Beginning in year 2003, Setec will provide 20,000 EMV cards for BRE Bank. BRE Bank is a leader in corporate banking and electronic banking services in Poland. With this deal, Setec gains a strong position as a partner for Polish banks in their EMV projects. Poland is migrating from magnetic stripe to chip cards in line with the international migration schedules.
There are almost 15 million bank cards in circulation in Poland, which is equivalent to almost 50% of the whole Central Eastern Europe bank card volume. Poland has also recently experienced the biggest growth in card volumes in all Europe: 1,200% in 1997-2001. A major share of bank cards are electronic in Poland with Visa Electron and Maestro functionalities.
BRE Bank will start the launch of chipped EMV cards within its prime customer segment, corporate customers. For the needs of these prime customers, also PKI features are incorporated on the cards. PKI enables e.g. digital signatures and strong authentication over networks.
Tomasz Sekutowicz, Area Manager of Setec Central Eastern Europe, believes that this project will be a booster in the EMV migration of Polish banks.
“Polish banks are now preparing their EMV migration plans, and 2003 will be the key year for starting concrete projects in Poland. This BRE Bank deal will naturally help Setec to have one of the strongest positions in the Polish market”, Sekutowicz says.
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