OREANDA-NEWS. February 05, 2010. As of year-end 2009, Uniastrum Bank issued over 685,000 cards, meantime more than doubling total plastic card credits, reported the press-centre of Uniastrum Bank.

In 2009 the number of plastic cards issued by Uniastrum Bank increased by over 100,000 to total 685,000, more than 50,000 of which were credit cards. Over the same period, the lender’s overall credit card portfolio more than doubled, reaching Rb 1.8 bn as of year-start 2010. Meanwhile, the total cash balance on cardholder accounts climbed 8% year-on-year, amounting to Rb 1.7 bn as of January 1, 2010.

Analysts at Uniastrum note that in 2009 the increase in personal loans outstripped incremental overdraft lending to retail clients. At the same time, total personal loan issues soared 2.5-fold to Rb 1.8 bn as of year-start 2010.

Last year, as part of its drive to enhance the quality and speed of its card services, Uniastrum moved ahead with its policy of rolling out its cash deposit machine network, installing 63 CDMs as of year-end 2009. Overall, as of January 1, 2010, Uniastrum’s had 664 in-house cash machines in operation, as well as over 1,300 terminals in sales and service outlets. The number of cash machines operating as part of the United Settlement System, which Uniastrum linked up to in 2008, stood at over 5,000.

Uniastrum Bank is a principal member of the VISA international payment system and an affiliate member of the MasterCard international payment system. Based on the results of a popular rating survey conducted by CREDCARD.RU web portal, in 2009 Uniastrum ranked among Russia’s Top-5 most trusted banks providing plastic card services.

“Rolling out our plastic card operation is one of our strategic business priorities,” says Oleg Shvetsov, Deputy Chairman of Uniastrum’s Management Board.”In 2010 we plan to more than double our credit card portfolio to Rb 4 bn.”