YEREVAN, March 15. /ARKA/. Armenian Converse Bank intends to increase the number of plastic cards at least by 20% by the end of this year, Tigran Davtyan, the bank’s executive director, said Monday at a news conference.

“The number of the active cards issued by the Converse Bank is 50,000 now,” he said. “We plans to increase the number of cards, also including the issue of Master

Card Woman’s Card, at least by 5,000. But that’s not enough. The number of cards will grow at least by 20% by the end of this year.”

Converse Bank issued recently

Master Card WOMAN`S CARD on the occasion on women’s holidays.

Cardholders will enjoy special discounts in more than 160 trade outlets, beauty salons as well as medical and spa centers.

Davtyan said that the bank is among leaders in Armenian banking system on salary projects. It cooperates with employers in Armenia.

He said that salary cards constitute 30% of the total number of the bank-issued cards.

Converse Bank was established in 1993.

Advanced Global Investments LLC (Argentina) holds 95% of the bank’s shares, and the remaining 5% belong to Armenian Apostolic Church.

The Converse Bank has 25 branches with more than 600 employees in 13 cities in Armenia. M.V.-0---

According to ARKA News Agency’s data, the bank’s assets totaled about AMD 89.7 billion and liabilities AMD 73.2 billion in late December 2010.

Its total capital amounted to AMD 16.4 billion and loan portfolio AMD 42.7 billion.

Converse Bank’s liabilities toward clients totaled AMD 55.7 billion and net profit for 2010 amounted to AMD 1.4 billion.

The bank has 28 branches. ($1= AMD 367.85). -0-