ArmInfo. In Armenia, the total volume of plastic transactions slowed down the y-o-y growth from 32.5% in 9 months of 2020 to 21.6% in 9 months of 2021, amounting to 2.3 trillion AMD (including transactions abroad with cards of Armenian issuing banks). This is evidenced by the data of the RA Central Bank.
According to the regulator, the growth of plastic transactions is ensured due to the activity of transactions through virtual posses (vPOS), the volume of which increased by 20% per annum in 9 months - up to 424.2 billion drams, as a result of which their share in non-cash transactions exceeded 60%. and in the total volume of plastic transactions reached 18.5%. This made it possible to further increase the share of the volume of non-cash transactions in the total volume of plastic transactions - from 29% in 9 months of 2020 to 31% in 9 months of 2021 (703 billion drams), despite a slowdown in y-o-y growth from 32.4% to 27. 4%. The activity of non-cash transactions was conditioned by Internet commerce, popularization of mobile and web applications by banks and Armenian Card, as well as effective incentives such as CashBack. Nevertheless, in the total volume of plastic transactions, cash transactions hold the dominant pklace- 69% or 1.6 trillion drams, of which over 95% were made through ATMs. And the 19.2% y-o-y growth in cash transactions was supported by a 20.1% increase in ATM transactions.
In terms of cards, the volume of plastic transactions showed growth both locally and internationally. Moreover, the most noticeable increase was seen in transactions with Visa cards - by 31% per annum to 1.3 trillion drams in 9 months of 2021. Then, MasterCard cards follow in terms of rates, transactions on which increased by 16.2% y-o-y to 685.7 billion drams. And even more modest y-o-y growth was observed in transactions with local ArCa cards and other international cards (HSBC, AmEx, DC) - by 10% and 7%, respectively, to AMD 387.7 billion and AMD 62.8 billion.
In terms of the share in the total volume of plastic transactions, the leadership is held by Visa cards - 50.5% (against 47% a year earlier), MasterCard is in second place - 29.9% (against 31.3% a year earlier), ArCa is in third place - 16.9 % (versus 18.7% a year earlier), and the remaining 2.7% (versus 3.1% a year earlier) are transactions with other international cards. In the total number of cards, the dominant position is also retained by Visa cards - 43.4% (against 42.6% a year earlier), followed by ArCa - 29.2% (against 30.1% a year earlier), MasterCard - 25.6% ( against 25.5% a year earlier), and the remaining 1.8% (against 1.7% a year earlier) are other international cards (HSBC cards, AmEx and Diners Club).
The contraction in the y-o-y growth rate of plastic transactions is explained by the slowdown in the growth of the number of cards from 9.1% in 9 months of 2020 to 5.3% in 9 months of 2021, the number of which as of October 1, 2021 are more than 2.621 million pcs. In particular, the number of local ArCa cards slowed down y-o-y growth from 3.9% to 1.8%, Visa - from 12.8% to 7.1%, MasterCard - from 9.7% to 5.8%, while how the growth of other international cards accelerated from 7.1% to 10.8% due to a 55% growth of number in the AmEx. And the number of ArCa-MIR cards, of which there are slightly more than 7 thousand pcs, increased by 46.2% on a y-o-y terms.
It should be noted that the majority shareholder of ArCa is the Central Bank of Armenia, then the major shareholders of the organization are ACBA-Credit Agricole Bank, Armeconombank and Ardshinbank, and the remaining 14 banks each own 2% of shares. HSBC Bank Armenia and VTB Bank (Armenia) operate on the card market through their own processing. All 17 banks of Armenia operate in the plastic market, including Armswissbank, which has been issuing cards since March 2018.
