Committed to protecting the present and future of the environment, the financial institution BAC will launch its BIO card in Panama on March 10. It is of natural origin, made of inedible corn, which at the end of its useful life and is returned to the established points of BAC, will be composted, returning to nature safely.

This is born from our mission in wanting to be a positive net bank for the world,” said Gisela Sánchez, regional director of Strategy and Corporate Relations at BAC, during the launch of the BIO card at the Biomuseum on February 28 of this year.

The executive spoke with La Estrella de Panamá explaining the negative effect that plastic cards have on the environment, defining them as “a double negative impact when “These products are made of fossil material, which produces a high level of greenhouse gases, and when discarded, plastic takes more than 600 years to disappear, which continues to negatively impact the world,” he analyzed.

This was the impetus to design a solution that promises BAC users and the ecosystem a better environmental future.

Its ecological composition

The new card is composed of 82% of material removed from non-edible corn whose production uses 26% less energy and emits 66% less greenhouse gases compared to PVC plastic.

The remaining 18% of the card corresponds to the chip, band, antenna and design and for the latter aspect, the inks used are water-based and not solvents.

In partnership with small and medium-sized Central American companies, at the end of its period of use, the material will be ground and will serve as industrial composting with the aim of returning to nature in a period of 90 days compared to the decades of years that PVC plastics take.

The rest of the components, as in the case of technological materials, will be separated in order to value them

It creates an environmental impact since it is created with natural and compostable products; a social impact since Panamanian enterprises will help safely, in the process of composing the card with nanotechnology centers and research of natural products; and an impact on the circular economy by all the guilds that work on its creation, use, and decomposition process.

The latter includes biorefineries, collection

of plastic, Sánchez explained to the media that “work is being done to improve all the financial solutions of the entity, so that in the future, they will be of natural origin.”

To this he added that “in the same way it is expected to create a digital card being the one that definitely has the least impact on the environment.”

The measures in the future

To continue under this line of being a positive net bank, BAC “is transforming its portfolio of financial solutions so that they have environmental and social value promoting available mobility, the circular economy, the development of SMEs, gender equity and more in the coming months,” he added.

This is just the beginning of a wave that is growing and promises to do everything possible to provide a positive effect on our ecosystem.”