Friday, November 9 2012 18:22

Potential of Armenian market of plastic cards totals nearly 4 mln cards


ArmInfo. The potential of the Armenian market of plastic cards totals nearly 4 mln bankcards, Tigran Davtyan, Chief Executive Officer of Converse Bank, told journalists on Friday.

"At present the plastic market of Armenia has about 1 mln active cards. It is one of the lowest indices in the world, if the population of the country is 3 mln people", Davtyan said.

As regards creation of the Armenian banks' own local processing centers, he stressed that it should not be an aim in itself. As for Converse Bank, he said that debates were held on possible creation of such a center, and it was decided to abstain from it and to contribute to development of the Armenian Card national processing center. "The leadership of Converse bank will be back to this issue only when the number of the active cards exceeds 200 thsd", he said.

Davtyan added that today Converse Bank numbers about 82.5 thsd active cards against almost 49 thsd as of early 2012. The Bank is going to increase the number of the cards to 90 thsd by the end of 2012. The average monthly volume of noncash transactions is 1 bln AMD against 687 mln AMD as of early 2012. Davtyan added that the number of Bank's ATMs has increased by 40%, and POS terminals - by 32% since the beginning of 2012.

According to ArmInfo's Analytical Review "Armenian Banks in Card Business", as of 1 April 2012, Converse Bank is among the top ten leading banks in terms of the total number of active cards and the volume of plastic transactions, and holds the 4th position in the market by the number of VISA cards. Converse Bank issues and serves local Ar‘a and international Visa and MasterCards.
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