YEREVAN, December 22. /ARKA/. Areximbank – Gazprombank Group CJSC started issuing and serving proximity cards with VisapayWave technology, the press office of the bank reported on Monday.
Areximbank – Gazprombank Group is the first organization in Armenia to issue and serve such a kind of plastic cards.
“VisapayWave is a unique technology that allows cardholders to make instant payments in all the trade centers equipped with proximity devises,” the press release says.
There is no need to insert the card in the payment terminal, sign a check or dial a pin code for paying less than 10,000 drams. It is necessary just to set the card to the devise near the cash registers and the payment will be accepted.
All the VisapayWave proximity cards, regardless of which bank or country has issued them, will be accepted by Areximbank – Gazprombank Group’s proximity terminals.
“VisapayWave technology is based on usage of EMV international standards for chip cards,” the bank says in its press release. “It ensures functional compatibility between cards and payment terminals all over the world, i.e. in 50 countries, including Armenia’s closest partners – Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine and Georgia.”
According to the press release, the bank’s 12 payment terminals accepting VisapayWave cards are already available in trade centers in Yerevan and the same number is planned to be added to them by spring 2015.
Areximbank-Gazprombank Group was established in August 1998. In 2007, it became a subsidiary of Russia’s biggest bank, Gazprombank.
The bank’s assets totaled AMD 130 billion and liabilities AMD 109.6 billion in early October 2014. Its loan portfolio amounted to AMD 75 billion and capital to AMD 20.4 billion.
In the third quarter of this year the bank sustained losses totaling AMD 941.2 million against AMD 413 million in the same quarter a year before. ($1 – AMD 455.75). –0–
