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Thales weighs in with stunning metal payment card for GRÁNIT’s premium banking service

  • Pioneering Hungarian digital bank GRÁNIT picks Thales Compact Metal Core payment card for top-of-the-range World Elite personal product
  • Sleek and tactile 18g card provides GRÁNIT with ‘heavyweight champion’ contactless Mastercard for style-conscious customers

Thales is supplying GRÁNIT, Hungary’s fastest-growing bank, with a brushed varnish metal bank card that brings style and substance to World Elite, its latest premium offer. The contactless enabled 18g Compact Metal Core card is the heaviest currently available to Hungarian consumers and helps provide digital pioneer GRÁNIT with even greater differentiation. The metal card is further enhanced by the use of Thales’ Premium Printing, which brings more depth and texture than conventional techniques.

The support provided by the Thales project team, from card design to prototyping and final production, ensured a delivery of cards within six months of the initial meeting, where GRÁNIT first came up with their idea of a Metal Card. The bank’s new World Elite product offers customers a range of value added benefits such as access to VIP lounges, free travel insurance and preferential car hire. With its special look and feel, the Compact Metal Core card therefore represents a perfect match. Swift and secure contactless payments are enabled via a prestigious lifestyle accessory that GRÁNIT customers will love to use at home and abroad.

GRÁNIT’s decision to go metal reflects the growing popularity and importance of premium payment cards. Across Europe and around the world, even Gen-Z consumers remain committed to using both digital and card-based payment instruments. At the same time, the desire for individuality is driving demand for metal and other premium product designs.

Erno Borsos, VP Banking & Payment Eastern Europe for Thales said: “GRÁNIT is a perfect example of how banks can grow their business and build strong relationships with customers by offering premium card products. According to ABI Research, the market for metal cards grew by 22% in 2022, and will grow by another 14% in 2023. Thales is ideally positioned locally and globally to help banks ride this wave, offering a comprehensive product portfolio that can provide exactly the right card for every market segment.”
„GRÁNIT customers are four times more premium cardholders than the domestic market average. In addition, to our data, they use much more intensively than the market average. For them, the bank wanted to offer another opportunity", explained Péter Jendrolovics, Deputy CEO and Head of Retail Business at GRÁNIT, about the expansion of the portfolio.
Contact
Anne Sofie Hüttemeier, Communication Manager, Northern & Central Europe
+45 51 15 89 14 anne-sofie.huttemeier@thalesgroup.com