LONDON Despite plunging global markets and creeping worldwide recession, the Kazkommertsbank, based in commodities-rich Kazakhstan, is teaming up with MasterCard to launch the `Diamond`, aimed at the growing number of billionaires in this vast central Asian nation.

The card features a 0.02-carat diamond embedded in its centre. The `his` version is adorned with a picture of a winged horse, while the `hers` sports a peacock. With an annual fee of $1,000, a credit limit of $50,000 and round-the-clock access to a personal card `manager`, it will be launched in two weeks` time and aimed at recession-proof multi-millionaires.

The number of cards issued will be strictly limited to just 1,000 at a rate of 30 each month. Kazkommertsbank`s head of international payments systems, Alla Voyakina, has said the bank intends to target `the best VIP customers`.

The last Soviet republic to declare independence, in 1991, the country boasts abundant supplies of minerals and fossil fuels. It aims to be the world`s leading exporter of uranium by 2010. It also produces diamonds.

The bank has said that the embedded diamond is only a `design feature` to demonstrate the status of the customer. It has been tested thoroughly to ensure it will fit into cash machines and point-of-sales slots.

“Rich people can afford to have such cards,” Voyakina told the Financial Times. “It`s a question of prestige to have them in your wallet.”—Dawn/ The Guardian News Service