Friday, July 16 2010 18:35
In Jan-June 2010 Armenia's plastic card market grew by 12%
ArmInfo. In Jan-June 2010 the number of plastic cards issued by ArCa member banks grew by 10% to 505,000 - 29% more than on July 1 2009. In Jan-June 2009 the index grew by 14.3%.
The press service of Armenian Card reports that in June 2010 alone the banks issued 18,835 cards - 3,340 more cards than in May 2010. In Jan-June 2010 the number of MasterCards grew by 38.1% to 82,375 or 16% of the total number of plastic cards in Armenia. The number of Visas grew by 14% to 126,767, ArCas - by 6% to 295,556. 348,000 cards (69%) were used in June 2010.
As of July 1 2010 there were 2,824 POS-terminals. 2,731 of them accepted ArCa cards, 1,762 - Visas, 2,411 - MasterCards, 487 - American Express cards. In June 2010 the number of POS-terminals grew by 68.
As of July 2010 there were 622 bancomats - 48 more than Jan 1 2010 and 119 more than July 1 2009.
66% of Armenian Card's shares belong to the Central Bank with each of the 17 ArCa member banks holding 2% of the rest.
ArmInfo experts say that Armenia's stagnating credit market has forced local banks to reduce consumer crediting and to shift to developing different plastic card projects.