Monday, December 15 2014 16:45
Payment cards in Armenian market grew 0.3% in Q3 2014 amid 8.3% rise in plastic transactions
ArmInfo. The number of payment cards in the Armenian market grew by 0.3% in Q3 2014 (up 7% versus Q3 2013) and totaled 1.6 mln. The amount of the plastic transactions rose by 8.3% in Q3 2014 (up 24% versus Q3 2013) to 877.9 bln AMD ($2.2 bln) in Jan-Sept 2014 (versus 376.2 bln AMD in Jan-Sept 2010). As compared to Q3 2010, the number of the cards rose 2.3-fold.
According to the Central Bank of Armenia (CBA), the number of local ArCa cards rose by 0.8% year over year (up 0.7% in Q3 2014 versus Q2 2014), international Visa cards - by 12.7% (0.3% quarterly rise), MasterCards - by 6.8% (0.1% quarterly decline). By 1 October 2014, ArCa cards totaled 570998, Visa - 704335, and MasterCard - 314102, with their shares in the total number of cards being 34.9%, 43.1% and 19.2% versus 43.9%, 36.6% and 14.2% respectively in 2010. As compared to the same period of 2013, the share of ArCa dropped from 37.1%, Visa was up from 40.9%, and MasterCard dropped from 19.3%.
The source says that in Q3 2014 6.3 mln transactions with cards were carried out (2.5% quarterly growth and 16.7% year-over-year growth) in the amount of 322.7 bln AMD (8.3% quarterly growth, 20.4% year- over-year growth). In particular, in Q3 2014 ArCa cards saw 1.9 mln transactions worth 88.3 bln AMD, Visa - 2.8 mln transactions worth 150.4 bln AMD, MasterCards - 1.3 mln transactions worth 63.3 bln AMD. The remaining 343.8 thsd transactions worth 20.8 bln AMD were carried out with other cards (mostly HSBC cards and partly AmEx). In Jan-Sept 2014, ArCa saw 239 bln AMD transactions (21.5% year-over-year growth), Visa - 408.4 bln AMD (23.2% year-over-year growth), MasterCard - 172.2 bln AMD (36.8% year-over-year growth). As a result, the total amount of plastic transactions grew by 23.8% as compared to Jan-Sept 2013. As compared to Jan-Sept 2010, the plastic transactions with MasterCards rose more than threefold, Visa - almost threefold, and ArCa - 63.3%.
In Q3 2014 versus Q3 2013, MasterCard transactions rose by 30.2%, ArCa - by 20.9% and VISA - by 18.5%. In Q3 2014 alone Visa transactions grew by 9.6%, MasterCard - by 9.1%, ArCa - by 7%.
As of 1 October 2014, there were 6902 POS-terminals in Armenia, with 726 of them being at the head offices and branches of the banks. The year-over-year growth of POS terminals was 1.2% (80) the quarterly decline was 0.8% (57). There were 1357 ATMs (11% year-over-year growth), including 22 installed in Q3 (versus 38 in Q2 and 42 in Q1). In Q3 2014, there were there were 6787 trade and service outlets versus 6728 in Q3 2013. 586 of them were installed at the banks and their branches (versus 536 in Q3 2013), 264 - at the hotels (versus 230 in Q3 2013Ј), 3888 - at trade outlets (versus 3967 in Q3 2013). As compared to Q3 2010, the number of ATMs rose by 74.4% or 579, POS-terminals - more than twofold or 3707, and trade and service outlets - twofold.
To recall, the majority shareholder of ArCa is the Central Bank of Armenia. Other major shareholders are ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank, Armeconombank and Ardshininvestbank. The remaining 14 commercial banks own a 2% stake each.
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