Eurasian Bank launches Digital Tenge Card in preparation for Kazakhstan’s CBDC
- Eurasian Bank collaborates with Mastercard to launch Digital Tenge Card, facilitating purchases with Kazakhstan’s central bank digital currency (CBDC).
- The debit card seamlessly converts funds to traditional Tenge during in-store and online transactions.
- Merchants benefit as the card doesn’t require infrastructure updates, and spending is protected by Mastercard’s fraud and security guarantee.
- Launched on the 30th anniversary of Kazakhstan’s national currency, the card is part of the National Bank’s Digital Tenge project.
- The Digital Tenge project began with a pilot in June 2021, testing technical feasibility, and progressed to real-world testing in 2022.
- Eurasian Bank, a registered anchor partner, has been actively cooperating with the central bank for years.
- The next phase may involve wallet openings, QR transfers, and loyalty program tokenization.
- The debit card is launched ahead of the planned public issuance of the digital currency in late 2025.
- Mastercard’s network is chosen, offering 100 million acceptance points globally, aligning with the CBDC Partner Programme launched in August 2022.
- The CBDC Partner Programme involves key players like Ripple, Consensys, Fluency, Idemia, Fireblocks, and Giesecke+Devrient, aiming to understand and implement CBDCs.
