September 26, 2017: Sri Lanka’s most technologically innovative bank, HNB PLC announced a breakthrough partnership with Gateway College to introduce HNB Smart Pay – a revolutionary new proprietary card that will completely streamline payments and attendance recording for the school.
Through the new partnership, each student at Gateway College from Year 5 to Year 13, will be provided with a Smart card that will be capable of serving both as a school identity card for recording and monitoring of attendance and as a key to a cashless payment system within the school, enabling students to quickly and conveniently pay school fees and carry out other transactions at authorized locations in the school including the school canteen and bookshop.
Notably, the card – which leverages Near-field Communication (NFC) technology for greater user convenience – will also allow students to make payments at selected partner outlets including Hameedias, enabling students to routinely benefit from the convenience of cashless payments even for such tasks as purchasing of school uniforms.
Commenting on the significance of the new partnership, Gateway Chairman, Dr. Harsha Alles said: “We are confident that the launch of this new student card will immensely benefit the child, the parent and the school to enhance the systems and processes to prepare themselves for the technological advances in the future.”
Another key feature of the Smart Pay card from HNB for schools is the improved visibility that parents gain into their children’s spending. A parent now need only load the amount of money needed for the card, meaning that students will no longer be required to carry cash with them. This will provide even greater security for the child, and provide parents with greater peace of mind, while HNB will send out SMS alerts to parents whenever the card is used for any time of transaction.
“HNB is very pleased to introduce the convenience of our Smart Pay card to Gateway College. In today’s increasingly fast-paced world, the creative and strategic use of technology can have far- reaching positive implications. With this launch, we aim to empower students to understand the power of a well-developed savings habit and also to raise their awareness and help them to gain familiarity with a cashless payment eco-system. Utilizing these tools, we look forward to partnering with these students in their journey towards a more stable and secure financial future,” HNB Managing Director/CEO, Jonathan Alles stated.
The joint initiative between the two reputed organisations was made possible through the specialized expertise developed by both Gateway and HNB in their own spheres of activity. Hatton National Bank through its innovative technological background and substantial customer centre network was able to introduce the initiative to the network of Gateway Colleges. Similarly, Gateway, through its use of an in-house School Management System, School Online (SOL) was able to rapidly integrate the facilities offered by the Smart Card to achieve their goal of converting the school a paperless environment.
