Turkmenistan’s banks posted an announcement that starting from 13 April Turkmenistan’s Vneshtorgbank (the State Bank of Turkmenistan for Foreign Economic Affairs) will cease issuing and replacing Visa Electron payment cards.
Previously issued Visa Electron cards which are still in circulation will be serviced until their expiry date. Visa Classic and Visa Gold cards are working in the regular mode.
The Visa public affairs office explained to “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” that the discontinuation of Electron cards was envisaged in the e-commerce development plan adopted in 2018.
Visa Corporate communication officer for the CIS and South-Eastern Europe Yelena Gavinskaya presented a comment by Kristina Dorosh, manager for Visa key products in the CIS and South-Eastern Europe.
According to the response, in 2018 Visa announced the launching of e-commerce road maps, i.e. the program which allows Visa, jointly with financial organizations, to create necessary conditions for facilitating e-commerce.
“The transition from Visa Electron to Visa Classic and other cards of higher value is one of the elements of Visa programs, which reflects the current trend in the CEMEA region payment market (including Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa), as well as the customers’ need to have access to additional benefits, such as loyalty programs, cash back etc.
To illustrate, in some countries (for instance, UK, Turkey and Spain) the transition of customers from Electron cards to cards of other categories contributed to the growth of cash-free transactions by 30% within the year”, Kristina Dorosh reports.
According to the information posted on the website of the State Bank of Turkmenistan for Foreign Economic Affairs, the difference between Electron and Classic is the card issuance fee with a 5-year validity and security deposit with a service fee amounting to $10 and $15 respectively.
As regards insurance deposit, it equals $30 for Electron and $100 for Visa.