Milestone: Four Million Students Now Use University Smart Cards Developed by Gemalto and Santander Universities Global Division

VILLEPINTE, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gemalto (Euronext NL0000400653 GTO), the world leader in digital security, today announced a milestone of four million students now using the university smart card it is developing for Santander Universities Global Division of Banco Santander.

“We support Banco Santander in all countries where they will implement the university card and we continue to introduce new services to help Banco Santander differentiate themselves in this market.”

This university smart card (USC) acts as an identity credential in 200 universities around the world and is key to a number of value added services including EMV payment, secure contactless access to facilities as well as digital signature. Banco Santander, through Santander Universities Global Division, is currently running its USC program in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Morocco, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, and Uruguay. As an evolution of the program, the bank is now offering universities to install Gemalto’s Dexxis Instant Issuance personalization solution to enable on-site card delivery.

The Gemalto multi-application card verifies students’ identity and grants them access to university premises such as libraries, dormitories and sport facilities. Students also use the card for secure access to the campus electronic networks, to pay in cafeterias, take out books from the library, store grades and personal documents, pay for laundry and photocopies, and for other student expenses. As part of the program, students are offered the option to use their card as a Banco Santander EMV debit card.

The university smart card features the digital signature capability to enable students, staff and teachers to electronically sign documents. In addition, bearers of the card can access public transportation in major cities in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Spain.

“Gemalto has been a reliable partner since program launch,” commented Vicente Prior, Director of Smarts University Cards at Santander Universities Global Division, Banco Santander. “Their global presence is a unique asset that will assist us wherever we deploy the university card. Gemalto’s innovation capacity has helped us to introduce new features on the card and it will be of great support for future developments.”

“Gemalto is dedicating significant resources to this project and we are proud to have made the difference for four million students around the world,” added Philippe Cambriel, Executive Vice President Secure Transactions Business Unit at Gemalto. “We support Banco Santander in all countries where they will implement the university card and we continue to introduce new services to help Banco Santander differentiate themselves in this market.”

About Santander Universities Global Division

The issue of almost 4 million university smart cards in more than 200 universities is one of Santander Universities Global Division initiatives. Banco Santander created ‘Santander Universities’ in 1996 to support the Higher Education sector in such areas as teaching and research, international cooperation, knowledge and technology transfer, entrepreneurial initiatives, student mobility and innovation.

Santander Universities Global Division has signed co-operation agreements with more than 700 universities in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Mexico, Morocco, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay.

About Banco Santander

Banco Santander (SAN.MC, STD.N) is a retail and commercial bank, based in Spain. At the end of 2008, Santander was the largest bank in the euro zone by market capitalization and third in the world by profit. Founded in 1857, Santander had EUR 1,271 billion in managed funds at the end of 2008. Following the acquisition of Sovereign Bancorp. of the U.S. in January 2009, Santander has 90 million customers, more than 14,000 branches – more than any other international bank – and over 170,000 employees. It is the largest financial group in Spain and Latin America, with leading positions in the United Kingdom and Portugal and a broad presence in Europe through its Santander Consumer Finance arm. In the first half of 2009, Santander registered €4,519 million in net attributable profit.

About Gemalto

Gemalto (Euronext NL 0000400653 GTO) is the world leader in digital security with 2008 annual revenues of €1.68 billion, and 10,000 employees operating out of 75 offices, research and service centers in 40 countries.

Gemalto is at the heart of our evolving digital society. The freedom to communicate, travel, shop, bank, entertain, and work—anytime, anywhere—has become an integral part of what people want and expect, in ways that are convenient, enjoyable and secure.

Gemalto delivers on the growing demands of billions of people worldwide for mobile connectivity, identity and data protection, credit card safety, health and transportation services, e-government and national security. We do this by supplying to governments, wireless operators, banks and enterprises a wide range of secure personal devices, such as subscriber identification modules (SIM), Universal Integrated Circuit Card (UICC) in mobile phones, smart banking cards, smart card access badges, electronic passports, and USB tokens for online identity protection. To complete the solution we also provide software, systems and services to help our customers achieve their goals.

As the use of Gemalto’s software and secure devices increases with the number of people interacting in the digital and wireless world, the company is poised to thrive over the coming years.

For more information please visit www.gemalto.com.