OREANDA-NEWS. June 03, 2014. Tendencies show that more and more clients choose to receive their renewed payment cards by post in their place of residence instead of having to come to bank's branch. During first three months almost half or 47% of renewed payment cards SEB clients in Latvia received by post, which is a 19% increase in comparison with the first quarter of the previous year.

In January, February and March of this year SEB clients received more than 17 000 renewed payment cards by mail while some 19 000 cards were issued in bank's branches. This service is available to clients of SEB in Estonia and Lithuania as well. During the first quarter respectively 73% and 8% of renewed payment cards were sent to clients by post.

Ieva Tetere, member of SEB Latvia management board: "We are glad to see that increasingly often our clients use this opportunity to receive their renewed payment cards by mail. This service is both convenient and safe, and we expect than within next few months more than half of our clients will choose to receive their renewed payment cards in their mailboxes. This trend is another indication that clients' expectations for high quality services are growing. We see that clients expect from bank expert advice on more complex themes and demand more convenient solutions for everyday services such as payment processing and requesting new payment cards."

SEB bank retains the previous PIN code for renewed payment cards. Therefore, if the client has decided to receive the renewed card by mail, the bank will mail only the card. PIN code will not be mailed. To start using the card client has to activate it in his internet bank, in a SEB ATM or by calling bank's Client centre by dialling 8777 of through Skype. SEB offers the opportunity to receive renewed payment cards by mail since July 2012.

SEB Latvia has issued more than 570 000 payment cards. For client's convenience, from March this year SEB issues new MasterCard payment cards with a prolonged validity term of four years.

In order to ensure high standards of client service and efficiency SEB bank in Baltics has taken a decision to strengthen its cooperation with MasterCard and bank's long term objective is to perform a gradual transition to issuing payment cards with MasterCard brand. Transition period will be arranged in a client-friendly manner taking into account the needs of both existing and new clients.