The Bank and Visa today announced the launch of Visa payWave issuance and acquiring program in Armenia. The Bank will be offering a range of card products enabled with Visa payWave innovative contactless technology - Visa Student, Visa Classic and Visa Gold cards.

Visa payWave contactless technology enables customers to pay by just tapping their card against a payment terminal without handing the card to the cashier, which offers even more convenient, secure, easier and faster payment experience to consumers. Besides, no PIN or signature will be required for payments under 10,000 Armenian Drams.

ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE Bank installed first contactless POS terminals at Yerevan Mall, a shopping and entertainment center and as of today most of the merchants at Yerevan Mall already accept Visa payWave cards. The Bank aims at installing about 150 contactless terminals by end of the year. Merchants that accept contactless payments have the following symbol on their POS terminals, all Visa payWave cards also have the same symbol.

Visa payWave offers numerous advantages to customers and merchants including speed, convenience and security. Merchants can also benefit from serving customers faster, thus limiting queues and increasing the number of customers.

To showcase new contactless technology ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE Bank hosted a launch event at Yerevan Mall and announced a promo campaign for all Visa payWave cardholders: the Bank will offer 50% cashback on the first contactless transaction below 20,000 AMD performed on any Visa payWave card in the period from June 15 to August 31, both domestically or internationally. All existing Visa Student, Visa Classic and Visa Gold cardholders may upgrade to Visa payWave free of charge by June 30, 2015.

“Having issued the first Visa chip card in Armenia back in 2009, today we are proud to introduce Visa payWave cards, which mark the next stage in the development of payment technologies,”said Hakob Andreasyan, CEO of ACBA-CREDIT AGRICOLE. “In today’s fast developing world innovations are about improving customer experience at first place. With Visa payWave launch we aim at reducing the time it takes consumers to pay with their cards, particularly for low value transactions. Today customers are more prepared to use card for medium and large payments, while for small ticket cash still prevails. Visa payWave is about changing this pattern and making cards preferred payment method.”

“Visa is continually seeking new technological advances to enhance consumers’ payment experience and speed up migration to cashless payments. Our experience shows that Visa payWave could boost cashless payment in the market as this technology offers a new way to pay which is fast, easy and convenient, and consumers tend to pay with Visa payWave more often compared to the traditional magstripe or chip cards. We hope that Visa payWave will drive card payments into traditionally cash-based retail environments where speed and convenience are important, such as minimarkets, hypermarkets, petrol stations, fast service restaurants, shopping malls, and taxi”, said Irina Kamkhadze, Visa’s regional manager for the Caucasus.