The Amsterdam card manufacturer Gemalto NV announced Tuesday that it is providing Banco Santander SA with multifunction smart cards for use in Spain's university identity card program.
Gemalto said the cards will offer payment functions that comply with the Europay, MasterCard, Visa security standard, identity verification for digital signatures, strong authentication, secure, contactless access to facilities and other features.
The first school to use the cards will be Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Barcelona, which has 30,000 students at 24 campuses, Gemalto said.
Students can use the cards to gain access to buildings such as libraries, dormitories and gymnasiums, check out books from libraries, make purchases at cafeterias and other school sites, pay for laundry and photocopies and cover other expenses.
People can also use the university card to pay fares on public transportation systems in the cities of Burgos, Lerida, Malaga and Santander, the card manufacturer said.
