YEREVAN, July 31. /ARKA/. In the first six months of 2012 VTB Bank (Armenia) was the leading bank in terms of banking cards, the press service of the Russian-owned bank told ARKA. It said the first half of the year appeared to be quite successful for VTB Group’s subsidiaries in the former Soviet republics, whose retail businesses are overseen by VTB24.

"Since the beginning of 2012 the volume of transactions made by customers of Bank VTB (Armenia) by using plastic cards  exceeded 3.7 billion rubles, an increase of 42 percent over the same period last year,"-the press service of the bank said.

In 2011, Bank VTB (Armenia) joined a program to pay retirement pensions by cards and today it services nearly 40,000 clients. The number of the bank’s payroll cards has reached 118,000, an increase of 20,000 cards from  the beginning of the year, which makes 66 percent in the bank’s overall card portfolio.

The bank operates nearly 100 ATMs throughout the country; about half of them are located in Yerevan. During the first half of 2012 the total volume of transactions made with their help increased by 1.4 times to 4.4 billion rubles. As part of a joint program customers have the opportunity to make transactions through ATMs run by subsidiaries of VTB Group in Russia, CIS and Georgia with no commission.

Last year, VTB Bank (Armenia) launched co-branding projects with ArmenTel telecom (trading as Beeline) and  "Cosmopolitan Armenia" magazine. Customers of the bank may also use SMS-banking service, mobile and Internet geolocation of ATMs and other products. By the end of 2012 the Bank plans to launch Internet banking.

"Armenia is one of the most dynamic retail markets in the former Soviet Union, and the first position of our bank in terms of credit cards has become a great success, ‘ said Vice-President of VTB 24, Vsevolod Smakov.

Bank VTB (Armenia) is fully owned by the second largest Russian VTB Bank. It runs 68 branches in Armenia. -0-