Tuesday, June 16 2015 07:42

ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank and Visa International have announced an issue and service of Visa payWave contactless cards. Presenting the new product on June 14, Hakob Andreasyan, ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank CEO, said the Bank offers a range of innovative contactless card products: Visa Student, Visa Classic, and Visa Gold.  "Customers can make payments via Visa payWave card without submitting it to the service staff.  To make a payment for a product, it is necessary to bring the card close to a POS-terminal.  PayWave technology gives an opportunity to make quickest, safest and easiest payments for products, which is in favor of both the customers and the trade points, as it enables them to serve more customers at the same time avoiding crowding," Andreasyan said. "To issue contactless cards Visa and establish a network for serving these cards, ACBA-Credit AGricole Bank cooperates with the well-known French companies Oberthur Technologies and Ingenico." He said a customer can make payments below 10,000 drams without entering his PIN-code or signing the paycheck. The Bank has already installed contactless POS-terminals at Yerevan Mall shopping and entertainment center where most shops and service points accept Visa payWave, and seeks to increase the number of the contactless terminals to 150 by the end of the year. Contactless POS-terminals and cards have contactless acceptance symbols. Andreasyan said the Bank offers a 50% cashback

for the first payment through Visa payWave in the period from June 15 up to August 31.

               All the holders of Visa Student, Visa Classic, and Visa Gold cards can exchange their active cards with Visa payWave cards free of charge until June 30.  "Visa payWave is a new level of technological development of payment cards. Most people in Armenia use cards to pay for big purchases only, preferring paying in cash for smaller ones. We are going to change this approach and turn cards into usual payment instruments," Andreasyan said.  He said the Bank is set to install a big number of contactless terminals in Yerevan and keep developing this segment. The Bank has issued already 1,000 Visa payWave cards. Further issues depend on demand.  Visa International seeks to offer innovative options of payments and boost non-cash payments. Experience shows that contactless payments via Visa payWave cards boost the market of non-cash payments, as it is comfortable, safe, easy, and prompt, Manager of Visa Payment System for Caucasus Irina Kamkhadze said.  She hopes the contactless payments will become popular in hypermarkets, petrol stations, food chains, shopping centers, and even for taxies.  According to ArmInfo's analytical review "Armenian Banks in the Card Business," ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank is among TOP-3 banks by the number of active cards - nearly 117,000 as of April 1, 2015, with a 13% year over year growth and nearly twofold growth for the last four years.  ArCa local cards account for 58% of total cards of the Bank, Visa International cards account for 32% of total, and

MasterCard - 10%.  The number of active Visa cards grew 22% year over year and 55% for the last four years.  The transactions via plastic cards exceed 166 billion drams in 2014 (a 20% and nearly twofold growth, respectively).  The bank is among TOP-3 banks by this indicator too.  Transactions via ATMs account for some 78% of total.  By the number of POS-terminals, the Bank is the leader (1152).

               ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK" CJSC has been operating in Armenia since 1995. Since September 2006, the majority shareholders of the Bank have been Credit Agricole S.A. (15.56%) and SJSC "Sacam International" (part of Credit Agricole S.A  - 12.44%). Along with them, 10 agricultural cooperative unions hold shares in the capital of ACBA- CREDIT AGRICOLE BANK.  The Bank's customer base has increased 25-fold, which shows the high trust in the Bank.  Over the last ten years, the Bank's branch network has grown 6-fold to 56 (second place in the market), including 41 branches are in the regions of Armenia.