YEREVAN, December 10. / ARKA /. Armen Grigoryan from the Armenian town of Armavir, a customer of Russian-owned VTB Bank (Armenia) has a won a three-day trip for two for 2014 Winter Olympics Games in Russian Sochi.

He was the customer who made the largest number of transactions by using his VISA banking card from October 1 to November 30. The special campaign was announced together with VISA.

Another 99 customers who also used actively their cards to make various cashless transactions were awarded certificates to purchase home appliances and also get discounted loans and the right to add one percent to a deposit interest rate.

Irina Kamkhadze, VISA manager for the South Caucasus, said at the award ceremony that the trip includes attendance of several sporting events

"We were delighted to launch this campaign together with VTB Bank (Armenia), but this one is of particular importance because of being held under the auspices of the Olympic Games in Sochi," she said.

According to VTB Bank (Armenia) CEO, Yuri Gusev, the campaign aimed to increase the volume of non-cash payments in Armenia.

"This is one of the most important areas of our business in the country, and we are very pleased that we have such a partner," he said. He added that the amount of cashless payments during the campaign doubled.

VTB Bank (Armenia) is owned fully by Russian VTB Group.  It runs 67 branches in Armenia, more than any other bank.

Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, banks and governments in more than 200 countries and territories, enabling them to use electronic payments instead of cash and checks. Visa has built one of the world’s most advanced processing networks.

It is capable of handling more than 20,000 transactions per second, with reliability, convenience and security, including fraud protection for consumers and guaranteed payment for merchants.-0-