DUBAI — Insignia, the world’s leading luxury financial and lifestyle management group has successfully developed a technology of layered metal coating that prevents germs from living on the coating. This has now been applied to their cards, creating a completely clean card and they are championing for the technology to be used by other brands too. As the UAE is currently requesting for all payments in shops and restaurants to be contactless, this latest development from Insignia, diminishes any concerns over the transmission of COVID-19 at the point of payment. This powerful new technology was created in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, as Insignia looked at new ways of supporting their clients. As reported, one of the most unavoidable forms of germ transmission occurs through the ordinary use of money and credit cards, and with 63% of people being credit card holders in the UAE (roughly 5 million active credit cards in circulation), the potential risk of spreading the bacteria is very high. A number of factors combine to make transmission through this particular form of direct handling a specific concern and a solution is very urgently needed — and Insignia are here to help! In effect, the 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. This new technology was developed swiftly by The Insignia Group to address the problem created by the Coronavirus as a way of ensuring the highest quality of service to their clients. However, Insignia hopes that this technology can help other product-based industries as well, removing the threat of germs living on surfaces of products such as mobile phones, stationary, laptops and so much more. — SG