ArmInfo. In Armenia, the mobile application PayX has been launched within the framework of the project of creating a single infrastructure for mobile payments. The project's initiators and co-founders are experienced banker Smbat Nasibyan and technology expert Beniamin Tadevosyan.
The presentation took place on December 4 with the participation of representatives of the financial sector, the national payment system Armenian Card, VISA Int., Officials and the media."The ultimate goal of the PayX project is to bring non-cash card turnover in Armenia up to 50-60% with coverage of services not previously involved in the mobile payment system. Today, this figure is still 10-20% of the total volume of card transactions. As a comparison, I'll note in Russia, the share of non-cash card payments is 55%, "saidS.Nasibyan in an interview with ArmInfo correspondent.In his opinion, the development will go quickly. "At the time of the project presentation, more than 100 points of trade and services are registered in PayX infrastructure. The start is promising - 6 banks and 3 payment organizations already act as partners. These are VTB Bank (Armenia), Ardshinbank, Ameriabank, Araratbank, Evocabank, Unibank, ENP "Armenian Card", as well as EasyPay and MobiDram payment systems. Negotiations are underway with other banks. Our immediate plans are to bring the number of points involved to 2000-3000 and use PayX everywhere for 1-2 months to turn this technical task into reality. enough h The partner banks have connected their outlets to the application, which will enable them to cover the entire market. We are fully prepared for this process. Moreover, technical work is already underway to connect a large number of trade and service outlets in the PayX infrastructure, "S. Nasibyan said.He specified that the technical capabilities of the Armenian Card Processing Center are used to make payments. "And it is the presenceThe national payment system and a single processing center helps us to quickly solve the task of creating a unified mobile payment infrastructure PayX, "explained S. Nasibyan, also saying that PayX also cooperates with ArmSoft and L-Soft. And the project is supported by international payment system VISA. "We offer tools that ensure accessibility to card payments at those points where terminals and ATMs are not available. Our innovative solutions will allow making payments in areas where plastic transactions were impossible - transport, taxis, route taxis, supermarkets, food facilities, restaurants, delivery. The only question is how ready the public is to use this tool. This is very important for the prospect of increasing the proportion of non-cash payments in the total volume of transactions. For the full operation of these tools, it is very important that there are two factors: a systematic approach on the part of the government and the public willingness to accept this tool. In other words, this is the task of the civil will ", - noted S. Nasibyan.Regarding the attitude of society to this kind of innovation, he noted two obstacles: First, the reluctance to use new applications, and second, the ingrained habit of acting in the old way. "Of course, this will not be able to be managed immediately, but I hope that soon the combined forces will succeed in taking this barrier," saidS.Nasibyan.The future plans of the project initiators include the integration of PayX into banking systems, trading accounting programs, and non-cash payments. It is also planned to create an opportunity to provide Visa Push QR payments in Armenia. To the question why the PayX project started from the financial system S.Nasibyan answered: "Of course, taking into account such an important factor as technological risks, we decided to deal with the most controlled area - financial, which besides this also has a wide range of services provided using modern technology. Cooperating with financial institutions, we are insured against many risks. "Executive Director of the Armenian Card Ishkhan Mkhitaryan said in his speech: "Technologies in the modern world are developing very quickly and today making a payment for anyone without leaving home through a mobile application. In the near future, using similar PayX applications, we will be able to significantly increase non-cash payments Armenian Card is open to projects of this kind, and we are happy to welcome the launch of an initiative called PayX. "For his part, Director of Retail Business of Ameriabank Arman Barseghyan added: "Technologies have become an integral part of economic growth and development, as well as a main aspect for any company in organizing business processes. Through technologies, it is possible to solve several problems at once, including non-cash payments to reduce the shadow economy. We are working with PayX, we intend to support it and give the opportunity to develop this project. "According to the Central Bank of Armenia, as of October 1, 2018, in the total volume of plastic transactions, the share of non-cash transactions increased over the past five years from 9.5% to 21.2% (compared to the same period of 2013), making up 9 months from .g. 280.3 billion drams ($ 580.7 million). The annual growth in the volume of non-cash plastic transactions slowed to 47.8%, against the acceleration of the pace for the first 9 months of 2017 to 2.5 times. The quarterly dynamics of this indicator showed a slowdown in growth from 22% in the second quarter to 14.3% in the third quarter, against a deterioration in the dynamics for the third quarter of 2017 from a 27% increase to a 10.1% decline. The number of plastic cards in Armenia increased by 1 October 2018 by 17.9% per annum - up to 1.928 million units, against a decline of 7.6% a year earlier. The annual growth of the total volume of plastic transactions from 7.7% in the first 9 months of 2017 to 24.5% in the first 9 months of 2018 has sharply accelerated to this, reaching 1.4 trillion drams. Leadership in terms of transaction volume is kept by Visa cards - 656.9 billion drams for the first 9 months of this year, in second place is MasterCard - 415.6 billion drams, in the third place is ArCa- 277 billion drams, and the remaining 23.2 billion drams are transactions on other international cards (HSBC, AmEx, DC). And by the number of cards, Visa leads - 739.7 thousand, local ArCa cards ranked second.- 612.9 thousand pieces, on the third - MasterCard - 531.8 thousand pieces, and international cards (HSBC-cards, AmEx and Diners Club) there are only 43.2 thousand pieces.