The Visa EMV cards, developed by card manufacturer Gemalto, will be available as a pre-loaded card with a pre-paid balance, and will be issued with a packaging made from recycled material.

Gemalto says the Clarista Bio Sourced payment card is easily recyclable and compostable through small scale industrial units, and reduces the global ecological footprint of the production process.

Johannes Schuster, member of the managing board of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich bills the project as a "show case" for the whole Raiffeisen Group.

"Gemalto's Bio Sourced card based on the latest state-of-the-art product technology offers us a solution with all security and functionality requirements which fits perfectly with our company values, particularly with our Climate Protection Initiative," he says.