Fortis Bank in Istanbul, the country's one of the largest private banks, has placed a further order for several million EMV Lite Y smart cards with Sagem Orga.

As part of the order for the major Turkish bank, Sagem Orga has completed the system customization to provide smart card personalization and customer loyalty features based on Sagem Orga CPS, the global card personalization standard. Fortis A.S, has begun to receive large-scale shipments, based on Sagem Orga's EMV Lite Y product, in November 2005.

"Sagem Orga impressed us with its overall offering and high standard of service. EMV Lite Y, an extremely flexible card product, and the system integration services as part of personalization were decisive factors in our awarding them the contract", confirms Mehmet Akin Telatar, Vice President Retail Banking Operations from Fortis Bank.

The smart cards to be supplied by Sagem Orga will be used in seven different customer segments at Fortis. Each card product will be given a customized design and profile, with up to four loyalty applications. Fortis ranks among the twenty largest financial institutions in Europe and offers its customers Visa and MasterCard credit cards with a chip. In particular, the product concept and integration with Provus - a local personalization service provider - was what persuaded Fortis.

"The Turkish banking market is now the third strongest EMV market in Europe and therefore in the center our growth strategy. Fortis is a special challenge in this regard, since it is one of the country's most innovative and technologically advanced banks.

The consequent expansion of our product and services portfolio as well as the addition of the high-security Sagem products has been a contributing factor in the decision of Fortis Bank and four other Turkish banks to opt for Sagem Orga," states Silvio Stockmann, Head of the Banking Business Unit at Sagem Orga.