Monday, June 6 2022 14:52

ArmInfo. As of April 1, 2022, over 2.7mln plastic cards were effective in Armenia, with an extremely moderate increase - 3.5% in the corresponding period of 2021 to 7.5%,  which is much lower than the 17.3% and 17.5% in 2019 and 2020  respectively.

Most of the cards are debt and charge cards - 64.4% and  31.9% respectively, with credit cards constituting 3.7%. Debit cards  showed a 36.5% year-on-year increase, whereas the number charge and  credit cards decreased by 14.8% and 57.3% respectively. 

The share of Visa cards is 45.1% (over 1.2mln cards against 41.9% in  the first quarter of 2021). These are followed by ArCa (27.6% or  754,400 against 31% in the first quarter of 2021), MasterCard (25.7%  or 700,800 against 25.3% in the first quarter of 2021). The other  cards are international cards (mostly HSBC cards, AmEx and Diners  Club) - 43,700 (1.6% against 1.8% in the first quarter of 2021). 

ArCa and other international cards showed a decrease, whereas Visa  and MasterCard showed a higher-rate increase. Specifically, ArCa  cards showed a 4.2% decrease against a 3.2% increase, with the other  international cards showing a 3% decrease against a 1.4% increase.  Visa cards showed an accelerated increase from 3% up to 15.3%, with  MasterCard cards showing a moderate increase - 5.1% to 8.6%. The  number of ArCa-MIR cards, over 8,000 now, has considerably slowed  down its increase - from 83.2% last year down to 13.4%, with the  quarterly increase of 18.3% against a 3.6% decrease. ArCa-MIR cards  showed a 3.9% decrease in the third quarter of 2021 as well. 

The share of microprocessor cards reached 57.7% (against 40.8% last  year) or 1.6mln, with most of them being Visa cards (1.02mln) and  MasterCard (543,400). The number of magnetic stripe cards was 804,600  (29.5% against 35.9% last year), most of them being local ArCa cards  (745,200). The number of hybrid cards is 315,040 (11.5% against  22.1%), with most of them being Visa and MasterCard. The rest 36,900,  1.4% against 1.1% last year, are virtual Visa cards, which showed a  much slower year-on-year increase - 29.6% against an 11-fold increase  last year. 

The number of debit cards is 1,759,000, that of charge cards is  870,874,000 and that of credit cards 101,142. The share of Visa cards  is the total number of debit cards is 802,114, that of credit  MasterCard cards is 56,025. As regards charge cards, the number of  Visa cards was 392,234, followed by ArCa cards (253,611) and  MasterCard (216,360). 

The Central Bank of Armenia is the majority shareholder of ArCa, with  the other principal shareholder being ACBA Bank, Armeconombank, and  Ardshinbank. The rest 14 banks hold 2% each. HSBC Bank Armenia, VTB  Bank Armenia, Unibank and INECOBANK are operating their own  processing systems.  Seventeen Armenian banks are operating plastic  cards