Wednesday, July 2 2014

Ameriabank has launched a "Non-Cash Freedom" card campaign for the period of summer vacations. The campaign offers the customers a line of credit for their vacations and emergency expenditure. Mr. Tigran Jrbashyan, Development Director at Ameriabank, said at today's press conference that the lines of credit will be provided on the basis of assessment of the borrowers' non-cash expenses and their consumption behavior. No proof of income or statement of employment is required. 

"The assessment of the customers' non-cash expenses will allow the Bank to occupy a new niche among the card products, because the new loan product challenges the stereotype of the borrowers' credit surveillance by their income", said Jrbashyan. 

He believes that the main problem the customers come across when applying for a loan is the assessment of their credit surveillance by their income. "We are changing this approach and switch to assessment of the customers' expenses and their consumption behavior, since we think that expenses characterize the customers' borrowing capacity more precisely. It is especially convenient in Armenia, where not always and not all incomes are completely registered and not all income sources are known", added Jrbashyan. He also pointed out that the service is available for the customers of both Ameriabank and other Armenian banks. "The Bank is ready to analyze the non-cash payments of the potential customers, as it has the relevant analytical tools", he said. 

For his part, Mr. Arman Barseghyan, Retail Banking Director at Ameriabank, said that the line of credit ranges from 150 thsd to 1.5 mln AMD depending on the amount of the cardholders' non-cash transactions executed over the past 6 months. The loan amount will be 6 times as much as the amount of the non-cash payments if a cardholder has no credit history or if his/her overdue time period has not exceeded 30 days over the past 2 years. The loan amount will be 8 times as much as the amount of non-cash payments in case the borrower's overdue time period has not exceeded 10 days over the loan redemption period. If the borrower has a credit history and lacks overdue loans over the specified period, he/she can be provided with a loan worth 10 times as much as the non-cash transactions. The line of credit is provided to the cardholders whose average monthly non-cash turnover through Ameriabank's service network has been 80 thsd AMD and more over the past 6 months. The offer is in force from July 2 till September 30. "No service fee will be levied until the yearend of 2014", said Barseghyan. 

According to the Analytical Review "Armenian Banks in Card Business" prepared by the Agency of Rating Marketing Information (ArmInfo), Ameriabank is among the top 10 by the number of its active cards (over 55 thsd cards as of 1 April 2014, with almost 40% year-over-year growth). The Bank is also among the top 10 by the amount of its plastic transactions (nearly 78 bln in 2013). Ameriabank holds the third position by the number of its own POS terminals (651) and is among the top 5 by the number of its ATMs (98). Along with local ArCa cards, the Bank issues and services international VISA and MasterCards.
Ameriabank CJSC  is a universal bank offering corporate, investment and retail banking services in a comprehensive package of banking solutions. The sole shareholder of the Bank is Ameria Group CY Ltd.