According to Ms. Svetlana Giorbelidze, the regional manager of the Visa payment system for the CIS states, Visa plastic card servicing on the territory of Abkhasia and South Ossetia is not provided. According to her the so-called National Bank of Abkhazia tried to make contacts with the Visa regional office but was rejected as this organization strictly adheres to the trans-border principles and doesn’t accept noncommercial banks in its payment system.   Ms. Svetlana Giorbelidze made this statement after the information on using Viza cards in Abkhazia had been  published by the official Internet Representative Offices of Russian and Abkhazian Banks.   Ms. Svetlana Giorbelidze noted that earlier another separatist region - Transdnistrea - made the similar attempt but in this case it got a refusal as well.  Despite this, according to the Visa  regional representative office for the CIS states, plastic card servicing in Transdnistrea is still provided illegally on a non-regular basis, but it doesn’t refer to Visa cards. In case of revealing such facts the violator of Visa regulations shall pay a substantial  penalty. According Ms. Svetlana Giorbelidze from March to September 2005, the number of visa cards  has increased from 96, 000 to about 132, 000 The amount of money in circulation on Visa cards in Georgia has increased 13 times over the last two-and-a-half years and amounted to USD 125 million  in June,  2005. According to these figures Georgia is still lagging behind Azerbaijan, where 570 Visa cards are issued and Moldova, where 140,000  cards are served, but  is ahead of Armenia, where, at present,  there are only 46,000  card users. 300 payment stations and 109 ATMs  provide Visa  plastic card servicing in Georgia.  10 commercial banks of Georgia are  affiliated with the Visa  payment system. In particular, about 35, 000 cards are issued  by “Bank Cartu”, 33, 000 – “TBC”, 28, 000 – “Bank of Georgia”, 15, 000 –  Bank “Republic”, 11,000 – “ The United Georgian Bank”, 6,000 – “Basisbank” Bank”, 4,000 – “ People’s Bank of Georgia”.  At present another three banks  – “ Standard Bank”, “First Commercial Bank” and  “Procreditbank” are being certified.