OREANDA-NEWS. October 11, 2012. The Bank of Moscow in cooperation with OAO Rostelecom have launched a new pilot project — an Electronic Government Card (EGC).

The EGC is a settlement bank card and a versatile electronic key providing access to the Unified Portal of State and Municipal Services (www.gosuslugi.ru). When issued, an EGC is automatically registered on the portal thus considerably saving the client’s time. To confirm the registration it is enough to just activate the card on the portal right after the issue.

A digital signature located in the protected area of the chip is used as the key to access the portal gosuslugi.ru. This will not only enable the client to pass the identification procedure on the portal but also to sign documents thus making them legally binding.

Along with the EGC the cardholder obtains access to all the services available on the portal www.gosuslugi.ru including the application for and issue of a foreign travel passport, payment of road traffic control fines, provision of a tax declaration or a request for a statement from the Pension Fund of Russia, all this without leaving one’s home. The EGC set includes a card reader that can be connected to any up-to-date home PC or notebook via a USB connector, and the guidelines with instructions how to connect and activate the card on the portal www.gosuslugi.ru.

The EGC can be issued in two versions: Visa Classic Unembossed or MasterCard Standard Unembossed.

"Thanks to the EGC we now have a radically new bank card that is going to be not only a payment tool but also a means of a legally binding digital signature", commented Alexander Yastrib, First Deputy President and Chairman of the Board.

Today the project is being implemented as a pilot and the first cards have just been issued. But it is planned that as of April 2013 such cards will become available for all who wish to have them.