International. Gemalto announced that la Caixa, the leading retail banking financial group in the Spanish market with more than 10 million customers, is implementing Optelio contactless payment cards, in what represents the country's first large-scale deployment of contactless payments.
Gemalto provides production and personalization services at its local plant to support la Caixa's strategy of issuing one million contactless cards in Barcelona during 2012.
The Gemalto card allows la Caixa customers to experience the speed and convenience of contactless transactions (simply by bringing the card closer to the reader) for small purchases up to €20 (About US$25), while the PIN code is used to authorize higher value transactions. With this new payment service, la Caixa is promoting the innovative contactless payment card system in Spain and offering new services to its 10.4 million customers. The solution also allows the bank to penetrate the cash market and thus benefit from a higher volume of transactions.
la Caixa chose Barcelona to continue its long-term strategy of migrating its card portfolio across Spain to contactless technology by the end of 2015. To support this vision, the bank is simultaneously creating an infrastructure of 15,000 merchants equipped with contactless payment terminals and 500 ATMs with contactless option for card reading.
"With this new implementation, la Caixa is positioned at the forefront of innovation," added Gabrielle Bugat, Executive Vice President of Secure Transactions at Gemalto, who also added that "they are raising the contactless payment ecosystem, which will help educate and prepare the market for NFC mobile payment, and Gemalto is committed to supporting la Caixa in its long-term strategy."
