YEREVAN, November 17. /ARKA/. By November 15 the Russian-owned Areximbank - Gazprombank Group issued a total of 88,357 payment cards, an increase of 24.4% over the same period last year, the bank told ARKA news agency in a press release. According to it, 73,278 were VISA cards and 15,079 MasterCard cards.

The number of active cards as of October 15 stood at 26,022, of which 16, 434 were VISA cards and 9,588 MasterCard cards. The bank has 132 contacts with corporate customers t pay their staff salaries by cards.

By the end of 2011 the bank plans to increase the number of ATMs to 56, and the number of POS-terminals to 225, the press release said.

Areximbank-Gazprombank Group (formerly Areximbank) was established in 1998 to handle financial flows between Armenia and Russia. It is a principled member of VISA International and MasterCard International payment systems. In 2007 it joined Armenian ArCa payment system. The bank is owned fully by Russian Gazprombank and has 6 branches in Yerevan and 9 in regions. -0-