Insignia launches first-ever clean payment card

Leading luxury finance company Insignia has successfully developed a technology of layered metal coating that prevents germs from enduring on the specially treated surface.

The daily use of money and credit cards has been identified as one of the most unavoidable means of spreading coronavirus. Despite the increase in electronic transactions, it seems impossible for most people to change their habits so radically as to avoid the direct handling of bills or plastic.

Queen Mary University in London swabbed the hands, money, and credit cards of nearly 300 citizens, from which they gathered the following facts: They found bacteria on the hands of 11% of the total group, on 8% of the credit cards, and on 6% of the bills they tested.

Insignia’s technology works by silver-coating money cards with a layer that resists pathogens. Stringent tests on silver, ceramic, titanium and zinc credit-card materials showed that the coating effectively killed up to 99.9 percent of germs on treated surfaces.

The tests also showed that pathogens do not have time to develop resistance before being completely destroyed. Moreover, because the technology operates mechanically rather than chemically, the use of silver coating won’t contribute to environmental pollution.

Further studies revealed that the silver coating demonstrated the best germ-killing power when applied on titanium or zinc surfaces, layered below the silver on the credit cards. The silver catalysed the release of reactive oxygen species, which could even kill nearby free-floating bacteria that were not in direct contact with the surface.