Giesecke+Devrient launches Ocean plastic card at GFF 2024

Global Fintech Festival (GFF) 2024 is currently ongoing in Mumbai, India. I met up with Lucie Fonseca, Senior Director R&D Card Issuance Services, Giesecke+Devrient, on the sidelines.

Expanding on the properties of the Ocean plastic card, she said that the Ocean card is made out of plastic that is derived from the oceans. We work with PARLEY, who focuses on the oceans of the world. They retrieve plastics from oceans, beaches, etc. We partner with them on the plastics front. 

Parley for the Oceans is a nonprofit environmental organization that focuses on protection of the oceans. It was founded in 2012 by Cyrill Gutsch. 

The new card will be made out of the ocean plastics. We have pledged that by 2030, none of the cards being used will be made by plastics from the oil and gas industries. Till now, PET was being used for making cards. We are now using ocean plastics for making cards. The recycled plastic is different, as it has slightly different color, reminding you of the ocean wave. 

We are also partners with MasterCard for the sustainability programs. The Ocean plastic card is a payments card. We are hoping that there will be lot of interest from India.

Regarding the question why should one have the Ocean plastic card, she added all of us are citizens of the world. Today, the Gen Z is more tuned into this product. Banks can also offer Ocean plastic cards by default, and be known as a sustainable bank.

Earlier, Shaktikanta Das, RBI Governor, launched NPCI's two new initiatives — Bharat BillPay for Business and UPI Circle. BBPS is expected to revolutionize business-to-business (B2B) transactions. UPI Circle offers two delegation modes—partial and full.