DUSHANBE, January 22, Asia-Plus – Open joint-stock company (OJSC) OryonBonk is making preparations for issuing chip credit cards.
Rasoul Khudoidodov, head of the OryonBonk credit cards department, said in an interview with Asia-Plus that the bank will put the chip credit cards into circulation in spring this year. “Our bank will be first in Tajikistan to issue the chip credit cards,” the OryonBonk official said.
A chip credit card has an embedded security microchip. A credit card with a security chip is more secure than one with just the magnetic stripe on the back of the card, as the security chip makes it more difficult to fraudulently copy the credit card details.
“Besides, compared to last year OryonBonk intends to increase emission of plastic cards ten times more,” Khudoidodov said, noting that their bank last year emitted more than 1,500 credit cards of international payment system Visa International.
OryonBonk as associative member of Visa International currently emits the following credit cards of this payment system: Visa Electron, Visa Classic and Visa Gold.
According to the National Bank of Tajikistan (NBT), at present four commercial banks such as AgroInvestBonk, OryonBonk, TajPromBank and TojikSodirotBonk (TSB) emit credit cards. In 2006, 13,675 credit cards were in circulation in the country, which is three times more than in 2005. 13,640 holders of credit cards were registered in Tajikistan last year.
Founded in 1991, OryonBonk is a leading Tajik commercial bank. It offers a broad spectrum of financial products. According to Tajik central bank, OryonBonk’s regulative capital has amounted, as of December 1, 2006, to 71.1 million somonis (more than $20 million).
