According to the Russian business daily Vedomosti, microelectronics developer and manufacturer Mikron Group has high hopes of getting a new chip certified with MasterCard and Visa no later than in 2015, then starting production of up to 10 million such chips a month.
The banking chip, which Mikron claims has been made to 90-nanometer design rule to ensure upgraded kernel crypto-protection, will feature the PayPass and PayWave contact and contactless technologies that enable payments at stores equipped with reader devices.
So far Russia has relied solely on chip imports from such global manufacturers as STMicroelectronics, Infineon and Samsung. There is a security issue to deal with, Sberbank senior vice president Viktor Orlovsky noted pointedly in an exchange with Vedomosti, as foreign chips may be used as a spying tool to track users and their financial transactions. This raises concerns for all Russian banks and has apparently given the domestic chip-producing company a good leg up.
Mikron Group is the largest manufacturer and exporter of microelectronics in Russia and the former Soviet Union.
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