PRESS-RELEASE

Oldenburg, 10 December 2024

One of the first banks: OLB opts for inclusive cards

• New Mastercard Touch Cards haptically distinguishable
• Gradual issue to all customers

New brand identity, new logo - and now also new, special cards: OLB is one of the first banks in Germany to use the innovative and inclusive Mastercard Touch Card for its debit, credit and prepaid cards.

For people who are blind or visually impaired, there are only a few effective ways to quickly determine which type of card they are holding. Mastercard and the OLB are meeting this challenge with a simple and effective innovation: the card design is based on a system of side notches that make it easier for card holders to distinguish between the different cards by touch. The Touch Card debit cards have a round notch, the credit cards a square notch and the prepaid cards a triangular notch. The Mastercard Touch Cards can help people who are blind or visually impaired to use the right card and pay independently in stores or online.

“OLB is actively committed to diversity and repeatedly supports charitable initiatives that stand for inclusion and autonomy through numerous project sponsorships. We are therefore very pleased that we can also contribute to inclusion with our new cards and make it easier for many people to use cards in everyday life thanks to the simple haptic differentiation,” said Sinan Ilkgün, OLB Head of Business Development, Products and Digital Transformation. 

“Inclusion is an essential aspect of our corporate culture. With the Touch Card, Mastercard is underlining this commitment. Together with our partners, we want to create a new card standard for blind and visually impaired people and thus promote a more inclusive, barrier-free society. We are delighted that OLB is one of the first banks in Germany to offer this customer-oriented solution,” explains Dr. Peter Robejsek, Country Manager for Germany at Mastercard.

OLB will gradually make the new touch cards available to all customers. The automatic change is planned depending on the expiry date of the respective card. The first approx. 140,000 cards will be replaced by the end of this year. In addition to the notches, the new Gold and World Elite credit cards will have another special feature: These are the first cards that OLB is having made from sustainable materials (“recycled PVC - rPVC”). Over the next three months, the Bank will initially replace around 10,000 Gold and World Elite credit cards with rPVC cards in a new design. In the future, further cards will also be produced from recycled plastic. New sustainable materials, such as rPVC, offer OLB a clear way to accelerate its efforts to build a more sustainable future.

About OLB

OLB is a widely diversified universal bank with a nationwide presence and more than 150 years of experience in the core region of north-west Germany. Under the OLB and Bankhaus Neelmeyer brands, the Bank advises its approximately 1 million customers in the Private & Business Customers and Corporate & Diversified Lending segments in person and via digital channels. OLB has total assets of more than EUR 30 billion, making it a significant financial institution in Europe.

Feel free to visit us at www.olb.de and www.neelmeyer.de as well as on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.