Wednesday, November 24 2010 11:06
By the end of 2010 ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank to issue 1,000 AmEX Gold cards
ArmInfo. Nov 23 2010, as an exclusive partner-emitter of American Express, ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank started issuing AmEx Gold cards.
By the end of this year the bank is going to issue up to 1,000 AmEx cards, CEO of ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank Stepan Gishyan said during a press-conference today.
He said that his bank is the only Armenian bank serving Visa, MasterCard, AmEx and ArCa systems.
AmEx card holders will enjoy services of international quality. The cards offer a package of different services, including services from the world's leading insurers (purchase insurance, travel accident and inconvenience insurance).
The exclusive privilege of the cards is their financial flexibility. Gishyan said that AmEx Gold cards offer unprecedented credit lines with 50-day grace period as well as discount programs like Membership Rewards (holders get bonuses each time they use their cards) and Selects (holders enjoy discounts in shops and restaurants in Armenia and many foreign countries).
Gishyan recalled that the Bank signed the agreement with American Express as early as in August 2009. Under the agreement the bank was the first in Armenia to serve AmEx cards. The annual fee for the card service is 90 thsd AMD. The card holders will be able to pay for their goods and services via both the bancomats and POS-terminals of the issuer bank, and a number of other Armenian banks having relevant agreements with ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank.
For his part, Vice President of American Express Alex Furber pointed out that the service and issue of AmEx cards in Armenia are one more step towards implementation of the global strategy of the company. He stressed that the company has studied a lot of Armenian banks trying to find a structure with high-level service and big opportunities. ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank has become that bank for the company. The sides stressed that the entry of American Express to the Armenian market is a significant event for Armenia, as AmEx is a world famous company that has certain requirements and chooses as partners the countries meeting these requirements.
According to ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank, in June 2010 payments had a lion's share in the total amount of AmEx transactions - 112mln AMD (505 transactions) against 81mln AMD (464 transactions) in May and 58.2bln AMD (291 transactions) in Apr. AmEx cashing-in transactions in the ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank network grew by 5 times to 1.5mln AMD (27 transactions) in June 2010 against 310,000 AMD (4 transactions) in Apr. In Apr-June 2010 the bank increased the number of outlets accepting AmEx cards from 260 to 586. As of July 1 the bank had 110 bancomats and 963 POS-terminals.
American Express is a multi-functional company headquartered in New York and providing travel, financial and network services. It is a leader on the traveller cheque and cash card markets as well as in the fields of tourism, financial planning, business, investment, insurance and banking services. In Q2 2010 the net profit of American Express totalled $1.017bln.
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