PLASTIC CARD TRANSACTIONS TOTAL 98.2 BN DRAMS IN ARMENIA IN Q2 – 33.4% INCREASE
ARKA
Aug 14, 2009
YEREVAN, August 14. /ARKA/. Transactions by means of all kinds of
plastic cards amounted to 98.2 billion drams in Armenia in the second
quarter of this year; the number of transactions was 2,156,250. Amount
of non-cash transactions by cards totaled about 7 billion drams in
the period, the press service of the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA)
reported.
The volume of card transactions grew by 15.3% (13 billion drams)
in the period as compared with the previous quarter; the number of
transactions went 20% up (by 362,787).
The amount of the transactions by cards grew by 33.4% (or 23.6 billion
drams) in the reporting period against the same period of last year.
Of the overall volume of non-cash transactions, 1.3 billion drams were
transactions via the Internet (including 0.4 billion drams through
e-commerce); card-to-card transfers were 0.9 billion drams.
Over the period under review, non-cash transactions by means of cards
constituted about 7.3% of all card transactions, which is an increase
of 10.4% (or 0.7 billion drams) as compared with the previous quarter.
Local ArCa cards were used to effect a total of 989,053 transactions
for 37.9 billion drams in the second quarter: it is a 20.4% (by
6.4 bn drams) increase in the amount of transactions and a 26.3%
(by 205,930) increase in the number of transactions as compared with
the20previous period.
Number of card transactions through VISA was 640,478 in the second
quarter with the total amount at 35.6 billion drams. As compared with
the first quarter of the year, the amount of transactions went up by
15.4% or 4.7 billion drams.
A total of 295,749 card transactions through MasterCard were affected
for a total of 15 billion drams in the period, which is an increase
of 11.9% or 1.6 billion drams compared with the first quarter.
Number of other plastic card transactions was 230,970 and the total
amount was 9.6 billion drams (an increase of 0.2 bn drams).
According to the CBA, there were a total of 502,106 cards in
circulation at the end of the second quarter – an increase of 3.9%
or 18,863 against the first quarter. Number of ArCa cards grew by
8.6% up to 238,946 over the period; number of VISA cards went 2.9%
up to 4,997 and that of MasterCard – 4.9% up to 2,448. Number of
other cards went down by 17.7% or 7,595.
As of the end of the first quarter, there were 21 commercial banks
operating on the territory of Armenia that issue and service
plastic cards. 19 commercial banks are part of ArCa payment
system. ($1=370.75drams).