YEREVAN, November 20. / ARKA /. Two Armenian banks with the largest chains of ATMs -ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK and VTB Bank (Armenia) - have signed a cooperation agreement enabling their cardholders to use partner bank’s ATMs without having to pay extra commission.

Both banks said in a joint press release that their customers who have Visa and MasterCard cards have at their disposal now a total of 345 ATMs across the country.

"This means that  holders of Visa and MasterCard cards, issued by VTB Bank (Armenia) can use  ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK’s ATMs  and pay as much of commission as they would pay for using VTB Bank (Armenia) ATMs and vice versa," according to the press release.

The location of ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK’s ATMs are available at www.cards.acba.am and the location of VTB Bank (Armenia) ATMs at www.vtb.am. The electronic map of their ATMs can be downloaded from AppleStore and GooglePlay.

VTB Bank (Armenia) CEO Yuri Gusev is quoted as saying that the agreement is an important step towards the development of remote service channels. According to him, the agreement enhances the quality and accessibility of banking services for customers, providing ease of use of bank cards throughout the country. Gusev said that the united network offers 1/3 of the entire ATM network of Armenia.

"We are confident that this partnership will be a strong competitive advantage for both banks,” he said.

In turn, ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK CEO Hakob Andreasyan said the purpose of the cooperation in the first place is to maximize the availability of ATMs at affordable tariffs and help customers save time while searching for an ATM.

VTB Bank (Armenia) is owned fully by Russian VTB Bank. It runs 67 branches across Armenia, more than any other local bank.  The bank’s liabilities as of October 1, 2014 stood at 260.8 billion drams and its capital – at about 45.6 billion drams. In the third quarter it earned 870.8 million drams in net profit, by 78% less from the year before.

ACBA was established in 1996, within TACIS program of the European Union. Long-term and mutually beneficial cooperation between ACBA Bank and the leading French banking group Credit Agricole led Credit Agricole bank group to become the biggest shareholder of ACBA on September 15, 2006, by making a significant financial investment into the bank capital.

ACBA was restructured, becoming a closed joint stock company and it was renamed ACBA CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK.