Our history

IMEDI was founded in May 1989. From its creation, the firm operated in the Soviet market and, later on, in the former Soviet republics.

In November 1989, set in motion by IMEDI, a contract worth 1 billion French francs was signed between Dassault Électronique, of whom IMEDI was the exclusive representative in the USSR, and the USSR’s Sberbank. With this contract, bank card payments were to be made possible in the USSR. The Soviet Union’s first 144 bank cards were issued, held by the country’s leaders: Mikhail Gorbachev, Raisa Gorbachev, Nikolai Ryzhkov, Eduard Shevardnadze, etc.

In 1990, IMEDI provided the USSR’s State Committee on Statistics with the necessary software and equipment for the last Soviet population census, which was carried out in 1990–1991.

After the dissolution of the USSR, IMEDI continued its work in countries of the former Soviet Union in three fields:

• bank card payment systems;
• physical and electronic security systems for banks;
• consulting.

IMEDI has worked with the former Soviet Union’s major banks in the fields of payment systems and bank security.

It was IMEDI which introduced the bank card system in Georgia, by creating Georgian Card in 1996. IMEDI obtained majority interest in Georgian Card by associating with Georgia’s main banks.