Chile follows other Group countries in launching a range of Eco Santander cards. Made from recycled material, they provide greater protection against possible fraud attempts and are socially inclusive. With this latest initiative, Santander Chile has become the first bank in the country to unveil a more environmentally friendly range of cards.

Eco Santander cards are made with recycled PCV and display less information on the front and back to make them more secure in both face-to-face and digital transactions. They also have a vertical format, feature attractive designs and come with a notch at the bottom of the card so blind people know which way round the card goes, thus promoting social inclusion.

“It is in our DNA to explore new and efficient ways to meet the needs of our customers and also the challenges of caring for the planet. Both of these aspects can and indeed should go hand in hand, and this much is plain to see from the launch of these new cards, which is a further show of the Bank’s desire to shun the use of plastic while responding to the demands of an increasingly digitised world, where some 60% of transactions are now made in online stores. In this scenario, creating stronger processes and tougher security measures for the benefit of our customers is a priority,” remarked Nicolás Besa, manager of Payment Systems at Santander Chile.

The executive added that “With the new Eco Santander Cards, we are taking an innovative step forward in the payment industry, making us the first Chilean bank to present these vertical and numberless cards in a more environmentally friendly format. I would like to pay tribute to the hard work of all the people and teams that took part in this project,” he said.

Spain, Portugal, Poland and Brazil also announced the launch of sustainable cards in their respective markets last year.

More secure cards

​​​​​​​One of the most outstanding features of this new card park is the added security it provides. “For 73% of people, information security is extremely important and significantly 60% of transactions in Chile are made online. This shows that we need to be constantly innovating and doing things differently for the benefit of our customers," added Nicolás Besa.

Our Eco Santander Cards do not show any information on the front or back that is not necessary for in-person purchases or ATM withdrawals and the security code for online purchases is now dynamic, meaning a different code is generated for each online purchase, every 24 hours, or when registering your card for the first and only time via an app (e.g. Uber, Netflix, etc.).