Wednesday, February 2 2011 15:57
Number of active plastic cards in Armenia up 28.3% in 2010
ArmInfo. The number of plastic cards issued by the ArCa member-banks grew 28.3% in 2010 to 511964. The Armenian Card told ArmInfo, the share of local cards ArCa in total in 2010 was 57.6% or 295072 (up 21.4%), Visa - 25% or 132815 cards (up 26.7%), and MasterCard - 16.4% or 84077 cards (up 65%). Banks issued 19881 cards in 2010, which is 25.3% more than in 2009.
Transactions were made with 344,415 of the active cards in average in 2010 or 67.3% of total active cards (up 30.8% versus 2009).
As of Jan 1 2011 the number of the commerce/service and cash dispensing points (exclusive of ATMs) operating in the ArCa system totaled 2958 (up 34.2% versus 2009), including 754 were activated in 2010. The number of trade points totaled 2622 (up 38.3%, including 276 were activated in 2010). There were 336 cash-dispensing points (up 9.1% including 28 were activated in 2010). There were 3470 POS-terminals (up almost 36%, including 916 were activated in 2010).
The number of POS-terminals at the commerce/service points was 3038 (up 40.3%) and at cash-dispensing points - 432 (up 11.1%). 3251 of total POS-terminals served ArCA cards, 1990 - Visa International and 2940 MasterCard. In 2010 98 new ATMs were installed in Armenia, the number of ATMs fell 20% versus 2009. As of 1 2011 there were 672 ATMS in Armenia, including 506 served ArCa cards and 596 served MasterCard, while ArCa cards were served by all the ATMs.
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