Armenia`s national payment system launches ArCa.am mobile application  with the option to make PayX payments

ArmInfo.The mobile application ArCa.am has been developed, which in addition to numerous services will provide users with the opportunity to make PayX payments in many shops, restaurants, points of sale and service.

As reported by the Armenian Card press service, in order to make a  payment, one needs to launch the application, scan the PayX QR code  and approve the payment with one touch. ArCa.am mobile application is  available on iOS and Android mobile operating systems.

To note, Armenian Card (ArCa) is the national operator of the payment  system of Armenia, which provides partner banks with processing and  clearing services. The site of the NPS of Armenia is available at the  links: https://cabinet.arca.am and http://arca.am.  PayX - an  innovative startup in Armenia is a single mobile payment  infrastructure. Official website :  https://payx.am

To recall, the PayX mobile application in Armenia was launched on  December 4, 2018. The project's initiators and co-founders are  experienced banker Smbat Nasibyan and technology expert Beniamin  Tadevosyan. The ultimate goal of the PayX project is to bring  non-cash card turnover in Armenia to 50- 60%, with coverage of  services not previously involved in the mobile payment system. For  making payments, the technical capabilities of the Armenian Card  processing center are used. This project is carried out with the  support of the VISA international payment system. PayX's innovative  solutions will allow payments to be made in areas where plastic  transactions were impossible - transport, taxis, route taxis,  supermarkets, food facilities, restaurants, delivery, which is very  important for the prospect of increasing the proportion of non-cash  payments in the total transaction volume. At the initial stage of the  project, partners were 6 banks and 3 payment and settlement  organizations - VTB Bank (Armenia), Ardshinbank, Ameriabank,  Araratbank, Evocabank, Unibank, Armenian Card, as well as EasyPay and  MobiDram payment systems, and were registered in the infrastructure  PayX more than 100 points of sale and service with the prospect of  bringing their number in 1-2 months to 2000-3000. 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.

According to the Central Bank of Armenia, as of January 1, 2019, in  the total volume of plastic transactions, the share of non-cash  transactions increased from 7.3% to 20.5% over the past seven years,  reaching 395.9 billion drams ($ 818.4 million) by the end of 2018.  The y-o-y growth in non-cash plastic transactions accelerated from  23.1% in 2017 to 47.2% in 2018. The number of plastic cards in  Armenia increased by 18% in 2018, to 2.024 million units, against a  9.2% increase a year earlier. The y-o-y growth of the total volume of  plastic transactions accelerated adequately from 11.8% in 2017 to  22.6% in 2018, exceeding 1.9 trillion drams (almost $ 4 billion).  Leadership in terms of transaction volume is kept by Visa cards -  931.7 billion drams for 2018, MasterCard is on the second place -  581.8 billion drams, the third is ArCa with 388.2 billion drams and  the remaining 31.1 billion drams are transactions on other  international cards (HSBC, AmEx, DC ). The number of cards is also  dominated by Visa - 806.3 thousand, in second place local ArCa cards  - 629 thousand, in third - MasterCard - 545.7 thousand, and  international cards (HSBC-cards, AmEx and Diners Club) account only  43.1 thousand units.