Tuesday, July 31 2012 18:40
VTB Bank (Armenia) leader in Armenian credit card market for 1st half of 2012
ArmInfo. VTB Bank (Armenia) is the leader in the Armenian credit card market for the 1st half of 2012 with a portfolio of credit cards equivalent to 500 million rubles (over $15 million) as of July 1 2012 (almost by 150 million rubles or $4.5 million more than the indicator for the same period of time in 2011). The bank's press- service told ArmInfo card transactions of VTB Bank (Armenia) customers have exceeded 3.7 billion rubles (over $112 million) since the beginning of the year, with a 42% year over year growth.
The source reports that in 2011 VTB Bank (Armenia) launched a program of pension cards and is now serving nearly 40,000 customers holding those cards. Total number of pension cards has doubled since the beginning of the year, due to which the bank rose to the first position in the market and in the given sector. The number of the bank's salary cards totaled 118,000 with an annual growth being 20,000 cards. In total portfolio of credit cards the share of salary cards is 66%.
"Armenia is one of the most dynamics retail markets in the post-Soviet area and it was a big success for us to take the leadership position in the local market. Over the last year VTB24, which is responsible for development of retail business of the Group in the remote countries and EU member-countries, initiated serious modernization of the credit card products. Thanks to our new projects we have left behind the biggest actors in the local market and made our card products maximum accessible to customers," says Vsevolod Smakov, VTB24 Vice President, Director for Retail Business International at VTB.
VTB Bank (Armenia) serves nearly 100 ATMS throughout the country, including half of the ATMs are in Yerevan. For the first half of 2012 total volume of transactions via ATMs grew 1.4fold to 4.4 billion rubles (over $133 million). Due to the united network of VTB Group ATMs, customers of the bank enjoy an opportunity to make operations through the international self-service network of VTB Group in Russia, CIS and Georgia without a commission fee.
Last year VTB Bank (Armenia) launched co-branding projects with CJSC ArmenTel and Cosmopolitan Armenia Magazine. With opening of Private Bank Office in Armenia, the bank began to sell a package of Prime services based on the prestigious VISA-Infinite. SMS-banking service has become accessible to the bank's customers alongside with mobile and Internet maps of VTB Group's ATMs, and a range of other products. The bank plans to launch Internet banking system till the end of the year.
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