Thursday, December 12 2013 19:04
Converse Bank to provide its most active cardholder with a vacation package to Italy
ArmInfo. Converse Bank will provide its most active Visa cardholder with a vacation package to Venice. Tigran Davtyan, Director General of Converse Bank, said at a press conference on Dec 12 that from Dec 1 2013 till Apr 30 2014 the Bank's cardholders will become participants in a bonus campaign by making noncash operations with Visa cards in the amount of over 500 thsd AMD.
Davtyan said that within the frames of the campaign, a cardholder will receive 2 bonus points for each noncash operation and an extra point for each 1000 AMD operation. The cardholder to get the majority of points will be awarded the main prize - a vacation package to Venice. Those to gain the second and the third places will get SMART televisions, and those to gain the fourth and the fifth places will be awarded Ipad mini. The Bank warns that noncash utility payments are not taken into consideration.
"As a result of last year's Converse Goal campaign, the amount of transactions with Visa cards grew by more than 40%. This demonstrates not only the enhancement of the culture of noncash operations in Armenia, but also the increased public interest in such events. For the moment, Converse Bank has 130 thsd active cards, with 45% of them being international Visa cards and 35% being MasterCards. We will consider creating our own processing center when the total number of the Bank's cards exceeds 200 thsd. The average monthly turnover of funds with Converse Bank's cards is 8 bln AMD. 1.3 bln AMD of that amount or 17% of the total amount of transactions is ensured in the noncash way. This is a good indicator for Armenia but it is low by international standards", said Davtyan when replying to ArmInfo's question. He added that to enhance the safety of its card products, in late November the Bank switched to the chip technology. He thinks that Armenia's card market potential is estimated at 4 mln (versus the current 1.4 mln).
To note, Converse Bank was founded in 1993. The Bank's shareholders are Advanced Global Investments (95%) and the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin (5%). The Bank has 34 branches, with most of them in the provinces of Armenia. For the moment the Bank has 80 ATMs (50 in Yerevan and 30 in the provinces) and 365 POS terminals. Along with local ArCa cards, the Bank issues and serves international Visa and MasterCards.
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