Smart card solutions provider Giesecke & Devrient (Munich) will supply Commerzbank (Frankfurt) with credit and debit cards for the next three years. The bank will likely require several million cards by 2011.

The new debit cards will be based on the latest version of the Secure Chip Card Operating System, SECCOS 6.1, in accordance with specifications defined by the German Central Banking Committee (ZKA). SECCOS-based cards provide a platform for a multitude of applications, including EMV debit girocards (ec cash), Maestro (MasterCard), V-Pay (Visa) and EMV credit cards (MasterCard or Visa). The chip can also be used for electronic signatures, to generate transaction numbers (TANs) for home banking and online shopping, as a source of electronic cash (GeldKarte), and to implement age restrictions for cash dispensers and on the Internet.