Tuesday, August 23 2016 15:15

ArmInfo. VTB Bank (Armenia) informs its cardholders of MasterCard and Maestro cards that MasterCard international payment system and Odnoklassniki social network offer new, simple, convenient and safe way of sending money transfers from Russia to 16 countries of the world, including Armenia. The bank's press-service has told ArmInfo that VTB24 and "Multicarta" processing company launched this service of money transfers abroad in Odnoklassniki in July of 2016.

Holders of MasterCard payment system cards have opportunity to receive fast money transfers from Russia directly to their MasterCard and Maestro cards 24 hours a day. Due to new opportunities both transfer sender and recipient will save their time and resources sending and receiving cashless transfer in any place and at any time without visiting bank branch.

The only thing sender has to do is to choose the receipient of the transfer from the friends list in Odnoklassniki network or enter receipient's profile, choose the card from which money will be sent and mention the amount. Sender of the transfer does not need to know receipient's card number. The service is presented both in web version of Odnoklassniki and mobile applications for iOS and Android. Minimal amount of transaction is 500 RUR, maximum amount is 75 thousand RUR. Transfers are made in Russian RUR. In case money is sent to a card with a foreign currency account it will be converted in a rate fixed by the bank issuer of recipient's card.

In order to receive transfer recipient should enter his/her profile, "Transfers" section, enter "Receive Transfer" and insert number of his/her MasterCard, after which transfer will be credited to recipient's account. These transfers are free for the recipient and currently they are also free for senders, holders of MasterCard and Maestro within the ongoing campaign. Besides, when transfer is credited to MasterCard and Maestro cards recipient receives also 30 "OK"s -an internal currency, which can be used to buy services within the social network.

According to ArmInfo's Analytical Review "Armenian Banks in Card Business", VTB Bank (Armenia) retains leadership on the market of plastic cards both by the number of cards and the amount of transactions. By 1 April 2016, the number of active cards of the Bank made up 497.  The Bank has the biggest number of Visa cards - over 418.2 thsd by 1 April 2016, and the biggest number of MasterCards (over 78.3 thsd). Due to the serious (almost 5-fold) year-over-year growth in active MasterCards amid moderate (8.7%) rise in active Visa cards, VTB Bank (Armenia) increased the total number of active cards by 24%. As a result, the amount of transactions with cards grew by 12.8% over year, mostly due to the 21.3% growth in ATM transactions.  As of 1 April 2016, VTB Bank (Armenia) had 157 ATMs, including 78 in Yerevan and 79 in the provinces.  The Bank has considerably enlarged its own network of POS-terminals - from 298 to 345. Before 2013 VTB Bank (Armenia) issued and serviced only Visa cards. In September 2013, it became a full member of MasterCard Worldwide and started issuing and servicing Cirrus/Maestro, MasterCard Standard and MasterCard Gold cards. The Bank also services ArCa local cards.

To recall, VTB Bank (Armenia) joined VTB Group in April 2004 and is fully owned by VTB Group, the second biggest bank in Russia. VTB Bank (Armenia) is one of the leaders of Armenia's banking sector. It has 67 branches all over the country (the largest branch network in Armenia).