The service is absolutely free-of-charge for the customers of the Bank and is new to the Bulgarian market

A free-of-charge service to protect additionally their payments via the Internet, is offered by UniCredit Bulbank to all its holders of Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards. The service “Secured payments on the Internet” is new to the Bulgarian card market.

Subscription to it is available in every branch of UniCredit Bulbank and is offered both for new and for already issued cards.

The Secured payments in Internet service offers a possibility to the cardholder to choose a personal secret password for a card, issued by UniCredit Bulbank bearing the logo of Visa, Visa Electron, VPAY and MasterCard. The password is entered before making every payment with Internet traders participating in the secured payments programs “Verified by Visa” and “MasterCard SecureCode”, thus the card holder is identified and the security of the performed transaction is guaranteed.

UniCredit Bulbank constantly works on improvement of the security of the card payments. It was the first bank on the Bulgarian market to offer V PAY, which is the most secure debit card thanks to the fact that the whole financial information is kept on the chip only, Head of Cards Division in Slavka Valkova explained.

Valkova thinks that the tendency of 2009 for increase in the number of transactions effected with cards will persist and the total volume of transactions will increase. “The only reduction which we witnessed during the last year as regards cards, was in the average amount per transaction. This means that the card holders more and more use their cards for payment of daily needs such as costs for food and minor buys and not like until recently, mostly for large buys or when travelling abroad”, Valkova explained.

For contacts and additional information:

UniCredit Bulbank, Public Relations and Corporate Communications

Viktoria Blazheva, tel: 02/9264 993, wjlj/ebwjepwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Ekaterina Ancheva, tel: 02/9264 963, flbufsjob/bodifwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch