YEREVAN, June 7. /ARKA/. By the end of the year “Areximbank-Group of Gazprombank” will start to issue chip-cards, said Deputy General Director of the bank Ruben Khachatryan.

“Chip-cards are the requirement of time from the point of view of increasing the level of protection and security. Currently we are in the phase of certification of Visa and MasterCard and by the end of the year we plan to issue the cards”, he said.

Card business has been significantly developed in Armenia. Non-cash payments are becoming mandatory for the population of Armenia. “I consider that the decision of the Government of Armenia on moving to non-cash calculation is right, including payments of pensions by plastic cards”, he said.

Currently, the bank serves 25 thousand active cards and it is planned to increase the number of cards by 30%. “We have the service of ordering a card in on-line regime”, said Khachatryan.

Total volume of transactions by ATMs in the 1^st quarter of 2011 was 4.8 billion drams vs. 3.8 billion drams in 2010. The volume of transactions via cards was 9.3 billion rams vs. 7.96 billion drams. In the 1^st quarter of 2011 the number of cards issued and actively used by the bank increased by 24-25%.

In 2010 compared with 2009 actual growth of transactions by cards in “Areximbank-Group of Gazprombank” was 100% making about 40 billion drams. The number of operations via ATMs increased by 50%.

Areximbank-Gazprombank Group was established in 1998. The only shareholder of the bank is Russian “Gazprombank”. It is a principled member of VISA International and MasterCard International payment systems, as well as local payment system ArCa. ($1 – 376.51 drams). –0--