The first card-based banking system to be established in Central Asia was launched in Kazakhstan last month. The Alemcard, issued by Alembank, had an initial issue of 3,000 and the bank estimates there will be 6,000 Alemcard holders in Kazakhstan within a year. The Kazakhstani bank has an agreement with Russian Elecsbank on servicing the cards. Elecsbank issues its own magnetic cards which are used in Moscow and a couple of other Russian cities. Alemcards are debit cards connected to a holder’s bank account. The bank hopes to expand the system to include the international credit card organisations Visa International and Europay/Mastercard. Almaty-based Kazcomertsbank says it will also issue Alemcards. At present there are 60 Verifone Inc point of sale terminals installed in Almaty and 20 in Aktjubinsk. These were supplied by A/O Sprint Net, a Verifone distributor in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. According to A Eleuova, director of the Department of Informational Technologies and the Development of Bank Cards, the launch of the system was an important step in the creation of the modern financial infrastructure in Kazakhstan. Alembank was created on the basis of the former Vnesheconombank of Kazakhstan in 1991 and has 22 branches and 10 departments. The bank is a member of the Visa and the Mastercard payment systems.
