CorpBank launches smartcard

Deciding to net the student segment and widen its customer base, Corporation Bank on Wednesday announced a tie-up with Bangalore-based technology solutions provider IDenizen Smartware Private Limited to launch SmartCampus, a smartcard enabled software package for the education vertical.

SmartCampus, developed by IDenizen over the last four years, is a student identity card that can be used as a regular ATM-cum-debit card. The Visa-powered radio frequency identification (RFID) card seeks to integrate all key activities of an educational institute - be it payment of admission fees, monitoring students’ attendance, library automation and examination results among others - onto a single platform. SmartCampus cardholders can access 1,000 plus ATMs of Corporation Bank and 25,000 plus ATMs that are powered by Visa across the country.

 

Currently, SmartCampus cards are being used by over 60,000 students including those from Bangalore’s R V College of Engineering to carry out cashless transactions within their respective campuses. For Corporation Bank, the tie-up with IDenizen helps it widen the base of Corp New Gen, the bank’s savings account specially designed for students.

“Student community has been our focus area with regard to our customer base. We are making a lot of value additions to our products to convert our student customers from indulging in cash-spending to card-spending. With SmartCampus, students also get to recharge their pre-paid mobile phones,” Corporation Bank’s general manager B R Bhat said at a press conference here on Wednesday.

Bhat said the bank will offer educational loans for the cardholders: upto Rs 10 lakh for those studying in India and upto Rs 20 lakh for those studying abroad. The SmartCampus card will be disabled immediately after the student competes his college education and it will be replaced by a credit card, Bhat added.

IDenizen’s chief operating officer Vinod P John said SmartCampus has been well-received by the colleges as it takes campus management to a higher level. Colleges do not have to invest anything on this technology as students are supposed to pay an annual subscription fee, John said. Students have to shell out anywhere between Rs 700 -1,000 per annum to own a SmartCampus card.

IDenizen’s managing director and CEO Girish Balaga said the company planned to increase SmartCampus card users to 250,000 this fiscal and one million in the next three years.