Prepaid card produced from corn

Security technology firm Gemalto NV collaborated with the Raiffeisen Banking Group Austria to launch what they call the world's first bio-sourced payment card. The first such card issued by Raiffeisen Bank is a Visa Inc.-branded, near field communication-enabled and Europay/MasterCard/Visa-compliant prepaid card. The body of the special edition prepaid card is comprised of renewable material derived from corn.

The card, part of Gemalto's Clarista line of payment cards, comes in packaging provided by Gemalto that is also recyclable. Gemalto said the card's corn-based material is "recyclable and compostable through small scale industrial units, and reduces the global ecological footprint of the production process."

Raiffeisen is offering the recyclable card as the latest addition to its climate protection initiative to reduce environmental pollution. Among the initiative's goals: enhance the efficiency of energy input, encourage the use of renewable resources and offer ecologically value-added financial services.

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