France's Gemplus has won a deal to supply one million EMV smart cards to Setefi, the card processing business of Italian banking group, Intesa.
The cards will be produced at Gemplus' specialised European PVC manufacturing facility in the UK.
Gemplus says it delivered a first batch of 500,000 smart cards to Setefi at the end of June. The cards will be used for credit and debit payments, as well as for use with Intesa's online payment application, Moneta.
The vendor says EMV migration is currently in the pilot stages in the region and Intesa is one of the first banks to begin distributing mass volumes of smart cards.
Setefi says Gemplus has been able to supply a cost-effective and robust EMV operating system.
Philippe Combes, EVP, operations and financial services, Gemplus, says: "Thanks to our streamlined production processes and ability to purchase large volumes of chips, we are able to meet the demands of banks for a rapid, cost-effective migration solution."