B of A Card Lets Students Open Doors, Accounts

Bank of America has hooked up with the University of San Francisco to create a One Card system for student identification and payments.

Beginning this month, students will use the cards for access to school buildings and, if they choose, to their own bank accounts.

The school joins the growing ranks of colleges and universities adopting a multiple-function card system, though it has not gone to the extent of employing smart card technology. Officials opted for traditional magnetic stripe technology.

Bank of America, though, is a proponent of chip cards and has its smart card business unit running the San Francisco program.

"This will enhance our student market share and get us strategically on a path to a smart card program," said Bette Wasserman, vice president of smart card management at the BankAmerica Corp. unit. "We're hoping that students will see this as a convenience."

Ms. Wasserman said the San Francisco-based bank is also interested in providing more services to the university. It is one of the bank's oldest corporate customers, maintaining a relationship longer than 90 years.

"We did not feel chip technology had developed into an industry standard," said Charlie Cross, the university's associate vice president of business and finance, and financial controller for the university. "And cost was a factor."

He said the system design can accommodate an upgrade to smart cards.

Mr. Cross said 70% of University of San Francisco students already use Bank of America. Many international students, comprising 12% of the school population and primarily from Asia, do their banking with Bank of America affiliates in their home countries.

In addition to the 8,000 students, 2,500 faculty and staff members will get the One Card, which will have one magnetic stripe for bank transactions and another for university business. The optional automated teller machine function would allow the card to be used like any debit card.

Students electing to use the BankAmerica Versatel service will also get five years of free checking.

In addition to giving access to university buildings and dormitories, the card can be used for meal plans and copying machines.

By the end of the year, the university said students will be able to use the cards at all campus cash points such as the bookstore and laundry rooms. Eventually they will be keys to student rooms.

Jerome Svigals, a smart card consultant based in Redwood City, Calif., said the university probably chose to go with the magnetic stripe because the technology is proven and people are familiar with it. It would be easier to sign up vendors for the same reason.

Mr. Svigals said security is the primary concern with magnetic stripe cards, because they can be reproduced relatively easily. He said universities have an advantage because they are closed environments with "limited transaction ability."

Kevin Mullen, administrator of the National Association of Campus Card Users, Durham, N.C., said cost is a major reason for choosing the stripe over the chip for encoding data. He said students go through cards more quickly than average users, swiping them as often as a dozen times a day, and they also are more likely to lose cards.

Unit costs of magnetic stripe cards are around 50 cents, while smart cards are generally in the $3 to $5 range.

An estimated 1,500 U.S. colleges and universities have issued identification-debit cards of varying degrees of technological sophistication. Among the relative handful with smart card-based systems are Florida State University in Tallahassee, which converted from magnetic stripe to smart cards this year, and University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, which installed its system last fall.

Bank of America has implemented three closed smart card systems in the last 18 months in the San Francisco area, including an electronic cash trial at Visa International headquarters.

For reprint and licensing requests for this article, click here.
MORE FROM AMERICAN BANKER