Friday, August 12 2011 20:03

Issue of international chip cards in Armenia stimulates ArCa salary card projects


ArmInfo. Salary card projects in Armenia are going back into the Armenian Card (ArCa) national payment system.

Chairman of the Board of Directors of Unibank Mesrob Hakobyan explains that most of the local banks are transiting from magnet to more expensive chip MasterCards and Visas. This is good for ArCa cards as being magnet they are issued free of charge.

According to ArCa, in June 2011 Armenia's banks issued 9,411 ArCa cards (71.3% more than in June 2011), 3,992 MasterCards (-23.7%) and 6,020 Visas (-25.8%).

The annual growth in the number of ArCa cards was due also to the pension card program launched in Armenia in Jan 2011 and involving 12-13 local banks, who have issued 36,300 pensions cards so far, 60% of them being ArCa cards.

CEO of Converse Bank Tigran Davtyan says that just like the other banks involved in the pension card program his bank issues mostly ArCa cards even though it is ready to issue international cards on a pensioner's insistance.

Salary cards were first introduced in Armenia in 2000. At first they were ArCa cards only but later the local banks began issuing MasterCards and Visas for people going abroad on a regular basis.

According to ArCa, in June 2011 Armenia's banks issued a total of 19,423 cards (3.1% more than in June 2010). In late June 2011 there were 642,900 active cards against 504,700 cards in late June 2010.
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