On July 15, 2007 Bank24.ru started issuing unusual cards that are 43% smaller than the ones people living in Yekaterinburg are used to. These new cards can be used for cashless payments in supermarkets and stores as well as for withdrawing money from one’s bank account or topping it up with the help of Bank24.ru’s tellers (the cards are not suitable for ATMs). Besides, Visa mini comes in handy if you want to pay for your online shopping.

‘Bank24.ru’s Visa mini cards are quite different; they change the way we think about a standard plastic card. Even the very design of these minis was bright and extravagant rather than classic,’ Bank24.ru’s Marketing Director Irina Buyanova says.

‘Bank24.ru has thus become Russia’s first provincial bank to offer an unconventionally sized plastic card to its customers. Prior to this, only large federal players used to deal in minis,’ the bank’s press release states.