• Inkript, a Lebanese company shipping over 70 million smartcards annually across the MENA region, announced that its biometric payment card has received Visa’s letter of approval (LoA). The cards feature the “Zwipe Pay” biometric platform.  

<ul><li> Zwipe Pay receiving Visa certification two months ago paved the way for Inkript’s card approval to be accelerated. Inkript becomes the second company to benefit in this manner, as TAG Systems got its own Visa LoA just one week after Zwipe received its certification.</ul>  

• Zwipe has partnered with Inkript since 2019 and the companies completed an initial biometric card trial in fall 2020. Inkript went on to place a larger order about one year later, ahead of the potential commercialization of biometric cards.

<ul><li> Analyst Quicktake: This announcement shows the continuation of Zwipe’s recent push to expand in the MENA region. Earlier this year, Zwipe was endorsed by the Central Bank of Iraq to bring biometric payment cards to the country. Prior to that, Zwipe entered into a string of partnerships in the region in H2 2021, including a collaboration with Areeba and an undisclosed medium-sized bank in Lebanon (December 2021), NetPS (November), Credit Libanais , QPS (October), and International Card Processing Services Ltd. (July).</ul>