Post Bank, part of VTB Group, has launched a co-branded Visa card by X5 Retail Group’s Pyaterochka format.

Russian food retailer X5 operates several retail formats, including the chain of proximity stores under the Pyaterochka brand.

The new card is said to offer Post Bank’s customers the combined benefits of the Helping Card loyalty programme with enhanced banking services. Customers can apply for the card at any of the bank’s branches without any extra charges.

The cards are now available at over 1,500 Post Bank branches in the Northwestern and Central Federal Districts, where more than 5,000 Pyaterochka stores operate.

Starting from September, they will be issued at the bank’s branches across the region where Pyaterochka operates, including the Volga, Urals and Southern Federal Districts, and certain regions of the Siberian Federal District.

Pyaterochka CEO Olga Naumova said: “The Pyaterochka loyalty programme is gaining momentum. In the first four months since its launch, more than 10 million Helping Cards have been activated, and the pace of growth remains high. This co-branded card with Post Bank gives participants of the loyalty programme additional benefits.

“Card holders will get points for all of their purchases, while earning three times as many points when shopping at Pyaterochka compared to the regular Helping Card. The pilot project in St Petersburg and the Leningrad region showed that Pyaterochka card holders visited our stores almost twice as often than they did before getting the card.”

Under the Pyaterochka loyalty programme, purchases made in Pyaterochka will earn cardholders three points for every RUB20 if the ticket is up to RUB555 or four points for every RUB20 if the ticket is over RUB555.

The programme also gives participants two points for every RUB20 spent at any other store, including online.

The customers shopping in Pyaterochka can use these points to pay for up to 100% of the amount of their purchases at an exchange rate of 10 points per RUB1. Participants of the Helping Card loyalty programme can get the new co-branded Pyaterochka card and consolidate points under both programmes.