OREANDA-NEWS. June 25, 2008. VISA International, a payment system of world renown, has authorized Sviaz-Bank to begin direct commercial acquiring transactions.

“We launched our earliest commercial acquiring business almost six months ago under agency agreements we made with other banks, and have since shown perfect results for our efforts, as the numbers of contracts are growing steadily, and acquiring sales are rising at a fast clip to 50 to 100 percent a month,” said Arkady Komiaginsky, Sviaz-Bank’s Senior Vice-President. “The direct acquiring franchise from VISA is a pat on our back for what we have been doing in card issuing and acquiring these past months. With the franchise under our belt, we will be offering premium card acquiring rates to commercial and service businesses, and in this way stimulating the use of electronic money.”

Sviaz-Bank has the status of Principal Member in the VISA and MasterCard international payment systems and participates in the Gold Crown system. Besides, it is a member of the Association of VISA International’s member banks and the Association of Europay’s Russian banks.