Gemalto partnered with Banco Santander’s Universities Global Division to issue the Optelio Contactless microSD solution to institutions in Spain, Brazil, Chile and Mexico, as part of the bank’s University Smart Card program.

The application is already up and running at a number of universities, with participating students, teachers and other personnel already able to use their mobile phones for tasks like building access as well as for ePurse payments.

Banco Santander will provide a mobile payment option that is integrated with its own mobile wallet app, and intends to use the NFC-capable microSD to deploy a range of services including mobile transit ticketing.

The inclusion of NFC adds to the success of Banco Santander’s University Smart Card program, which is already used by more than 7.1 million people in more than 270 universities spanning 12 countries.

Gemalto, meanwhile, will handle the personalization, issuance services, the microSD cards and the multi-service wallet framework necessary for Banco Santander to create its own mobile app. The company’s Optelio Contactless microSD features 4GB of memory space that clients can use to store personal data such like photos and videos, while also enabling support for MIFARE ticketing applications.

Gemalto and Banco Santander will present their new solution April 10 at the International Congress of the University Smart Card held in Murcia, Spain. The even tis expected to see some 200 participants representing universities from 12 countries.