Gemalto is providing full set of personalization and production services at Gemalto's local facility to support "la Caixa's" strategy to roll out one million contactless cards in Barcelona by the end of 2012.

The Gemalto card will enable "la Caixa's" customers to experience the speed and convenience of contactless transactions - waving or tapping the card at the reader - for small purchases up to €20, while a PIN code will also be used to authorize higher value transactions. With this new payment service, "la Caixa" is driving contactless card innovation in Spain and can offer new services to its 10.4 million customers. The solution will also enable the bank to penetrate the cash market and benefit from increased transaction volumes.

"la Caixa" chose Barcelona to continue its long term strategy to migrate its entire card portfolio to contactless technology throughout Spain by the end of 2015. To underpin this vision, the bank is simultaneously creating an infrastructure with 15,000 merchants equipped with contactless payment terminals and 500 ATMs featuring built-in contactless readers.

Gemalto has supported "la Caixa" for the past 20 years. With personalization and production facilities in Barcelona and a highly experienced team, Gemalto has been the choice of "la Caixa" to ensure the smooth deployment of new payment solutions to their customers. Gemalto as preferred technical partner has provided its reliable and field proven Optelio card range as the perfect fit for this latest deployment.

"With this new deployment, "la Caixa" is positioning itself at the forefront of innovation," commented Gabrielle Bugat, Senior Vice President of Secure Transactions at Gemalto. "They are setting up the contactless 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."