First investment bank (FIB) got an exceptionally prestigious award in the category “Loyalty (Europe)” at the OSCARDS Awards 2008 on December 17th in Paris for it’s product – a co-branded credit card VISA vivatel-PIB.

For the first time, a Bulgarian bank is given an award for a card product in high-ranking awards such as this one. The Oscards, awards in the card business, are given in the following categories – loyalty and advantages, quality of the service, design and format, pre-paid cards and technological qualities.

FIB competed in the Loyalty (Europe) category with five other card products of giants like BarclayCard (United Kingdom), MBNA (United Kingdom), Banesto (Spain), Bank Asya (Turkey) and Unicre Distribution Card (Portugal).

During the ceremony of the OSCARDS Awards 2008, members of the jury praised the FIB members Nikola Bakalov (director of “Card payments” department) and Anelia Mircheva (director of Marketing, advertisement and PR” department) for the exceptional product.

The jury noted that the product wins because of it’s clear connection between the card and the telecommunicational service in every aspect – the phone-resembling design of the card, the adding of additional minutes for telephone calls depending on the use of the card, the international insurance that activates with the use of either the card or the phone when abroad, etc.

The jury also noted that this is the first and only product with vertical design and has the name of the card owner and the number of the card on a special place.