This comes nearly forty days after the two entities entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for this purpose.

OBC will aim to issue one lakh credit cards by end March 2012, its Chairman & Managing Director, Mr Nagesh Pydah said at the launch event here on Saturday.

The bank will focus on urban and semi-urban branches for achieving this target, he said.

Mr Kadambi Narhari, CEO, SBI Card said that this was the first co-branded relationship where every card would be EMV chip based.

EMV or Europay, Mastercard and Visa is a credit card industry standard that provides customers with enhanced security both in India and abroad.

The EMV chip in the credit card would help prevent fraudulent usage due to possible cloning of credit card. Besides credit cards to OBC’s individual customers, the tie-up also envisages corporate cards to be issued for corporate customers of the bank.

The SBI-Oriental Bank of Commerce credit card will be available in two variants - Gold and Platinum cards, Mr Pydah said.