VTB Bank (Armenia): Non-cash turnover via various cards increased by 25-107% due to "Let`s Fly to The Maldives" campaign

ArmInfo. VTB Bank (Armenia) and MasterCard international payment system have summed up the results of the joint "Let's Fly to the Maldives" campaign. The press- service of the bank has told ArmInfo that 100 most active holders of Cirrus/Maestro, MasterCard Standard and Gold MasterCard of VTB Bank (Armeni0a), who had made purchases via their cards (online purchases inclusive) amounted to 500.000 drams and more between June 15 and September 15, 2016 participated in the draw of prizes.

According to the source, the prize draw was held on October 29, 9:00pm in a live television broadcast by Armenia TV. The winners were chosen randomly. Lilit Lazaryan, Artyom Khachatryan, Maria Sargsyan, Marietta Melkonyan and Hrachik Kaxinyan won tour packages for two persons in resorts of Armenia.  Rudik Ohanjanyan became the winner of the campaign and won a trip for two to the Maldives.

VTB Bank (Armenia) and MasterCard regularly hold marketing campaigns aimed at stimulating non-cash payments and raising clients' awareness of functionality and convenience of using payment cards and every time more and more clients of the bank participate in the campaigns. Due to clients' active participation in the campaign non-cash turnover via various types of cards increased from 25% to 107% (compared to pre- campaign period).

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 496.6 thsd and the total amount of transactions in 2015 exceeded 210.3 bln AMD. 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 23.8%. 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.  By 1 April 2016, the share of Visa cards in the total number of active cards exceeded 84%.  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. In addition, VTB Bank (Armenia) and ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE Bank have created a joint ATM network, offering the holders of Visa and MasterCard issued by VTB Bank (Armenia) to make use of ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE Bank at the same tariffs as in VTB Bank (Armenia) and vice versa. The joint network has 345 ATMs throughout Armenia.  The Bank holds the second position by the number of ATMs and it has joined the top ten by the number of its own POS-terminals.

To note, 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.

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).