YEREVAN, December 16. / ARKA /. VTB Bank (Armenia) and MasterCard international payment system have announced today a special offer for holders of VTB Bank (Armenia)-issued MasterCard cards.

The bank said in a press release that by using their MasterCard cards to pay for goods and services in all trade and service outlets in Armenia and abroad, except for payment of utility bills via ATMs, the bank's customers will earn bonus points and get a chance to win one of three valuable prizes – a 500,000 drams worth certificate for the purchase of home appliances, a ticket for two to Sri Lanka and the grand prize - a Renault Logan car.

The offer will run from December 15, 2014 to March 15, 2015 inclusive. One hundred cardholders with the highest number of points will participate in the drawing of the three prizes. The list of the bank’s trade and service outlets can be found at www.vtb.am at a section called ‘Discount Program for Cardholders.”

VTB Bank (Armenia) CEO Yuri Gusev was quoted as saying in the press release that this is the second joint offer designed together with MasterCard. He said such offers help accelerate the transition from cash payments to cashless payments making the latter more available to as many people in the country as possible.

"We hope that this offer will be successful and trigger once again attention to the vast possibilities of MasterCard cards. Using these cards to pay for their daily shopping, our customers get a chance to win valuable prizes,” he added.

In turn, the managing director of MasterCard in Armenia, Belarus and Kazakhstan Alexander Dunayev said that paying by cards is convenient, safe and simple.

VTB Bank (Armenia) is owned fully by Russian VTB Bank. It runs 67 branches in Armenia, more than any other local commercial bank.-0-