Tuesday, February 15 2011 14:27
ArCa forecasts growth in number of plastic cards in 2011
ArmInfo. The Armenian Card National Payment System (ArCa) forecasts a growth in the number of plastic cards in 2011, CEO of ArCA Ishkhan Mkhitaryan said in an interview to ArmInfo.
In 2010 the number of plastic cards grew by 25.3% or 120,000. "2010 was a successful year for us," Mkhitaryan said.
Last year the company upgraded some of its services. Particularly, it has renovated its internet portal and now consumers can use ArCa's services online.
In 2011 ArCa will continue developing new modern services with a view to enhance the security of its card transactions.
In 2010 ArCa's Processing Center started issuing and serving American Express cards. "Last year ACBA Credit Agricole Bank joined AmEx, which was a big achievement for Armenia," Mkhitaryan said.
Asked if foreign cards are forcing ArCa cards out of the market, Mkhitaryan said that local cards have a number of advantages, particularly, they are easily set to new products and are flexible both technologically and economically.
According to the latest data of Armenian Card, as of 1 Jan 2011, the number of operating trade and service points and cash dispensers in the Armenian Card systems (bancomats exclusive) made up 2958 (34.2% annual growth). The number of trade points was 2622 (38.3% annual growth), cash dispensing points - 336 (9.1% annual growth). The number of POS-terminals made up 3470 (almost 36% annual growth), of which 3038 POS-terminals are in trade and service points (40.3% annual growth), and 432 POS-terminals are in cash dispensing points (11.1% growth). As of 1 Jan 2011, there were 672 bancomats in Armenia.
To note, over 2010 the volume of communal payments and internet transactions in Armenia amounted to 6.3 bln AMD (625594 transactions), having annually risen by 142.3%, and the volume of card-to-card transactions made up 3.4 bln AMD (34958 transactions), having annually risen by 22.5%.
To recall, 66% of Armenian Card shares belong to the Central Bank, the rest of the shares belong to each of the 17 ArCa member banks (2% each).
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