YEREVAN, June 5. /ARKA/. The UNISTREAM Bank earned a record high profit of 224 million Russian rubles in 2017, saying its net income saw a growth of 29% when compared to the previous year amounting to 2.1 billion rubles. The Russia-based bank said in a press release that the volume of money transfers sent via its UNISTREAM international payment system increased by 15% to 4.2 billion US dollars.
The volume of money transfers to the CIS countries and Georgia was said to have increased by 19%. The largest growth was observed in cross-border transfers to the CIS and Georgia: to Armenia (+ 24%), to Belarus (+ 21%), to Kyrgyzstan (+ 43%), to Uzbekistan (+ 37%) and to Georgia (+ 31% ).
The volume of money transfers to non-CIS countries increased by 23%: to South Korea (+ 172%), to the USA (+ 75%), to China (+ 74%), to Vietnam (+ 41%) and to Greece (+ 30%). According to the Bank of Russia, in 2017 UNISTREAM accounted for 26% of all cross-border money transfers made from Russia. The growth, as opposed to the previous year, was 25%.
According to the Bank, other services have also seen favorable changes. Not only money transfers without opening an account have noticeably grown, but also payment transactions. As part of the successful implementation of the UNISTREAM strategy to develop the payment business, the number of payments in 2017 surged by 40%.
The Bank also pointed out the successful launch of a new service designed for the customers of the system in 2017, with money transfers in the national currency of most of CIS countries and Georgia (Belarusian rubles, Moldovan leis, Kazakh tenges, Armenian drams, Georgian laris, Tajik somonis and Uzbek sums) becoming available both to senders and recipients. Money transfers can be made both from UNISTREAM’s own network points and online.
In the 4th quarter, the Bank launched the “Money Transfers” application for making money transfers by using VISA / Mastercard / Maestro / MIR cards. With the UNISTREAM mobile application, one can quickly and conveniently send money in real time to Russia, CIS countries and Georgia, as well as to Far Abroad by using VISA, Mastercard / Maestro, MIR cards, issued by any bank. The cash can be obtained in the offices of UNISTREAM international payment system.
The UNISTREAM Transfers application is designed to simplify the procedure for transferring money from bank cards through the UNISTREAM system. The application allows to store data from several bank cards, create convenient lists of transfer recipients, and see the entire history of operations and the current status of sent transfers. The user is notified of the transfer by push -notification.
“The development strategy of UNISTREAM JSC until 2020 provides for an even more active development of business directions. We plan to pay special attention to the development of cash management services for legal entities and the issuance of UNISTREAM VISA / MIR bank cards. In 2017, the Bank managed to attract more than 2,000 corporate clients for servicing, issuing more than 60,000 cards by the end of the year. We are pleased with our customers’ interest in the use of our services and will do everything to ensure that the service delivery process remains at the highest level,” commented Kirill Palchun, Chairman of the Board of UNISTREAM JSC. -0-
