ArmInfo. As of July 1, 2022, over 2.8mln plastic cards were effective in Armenia, including co-badging cards ArCa-MIR and Russian MIR cards, with a slower increase - from 8.3% to 7.7% - which is lower than the 9.1% increase in the corresponding period of 2020 and must lower than the 22.2% increase in 2019. In the first half of 2022, 95,600 more cards were issued, with 67,400 cards issued in the 2nd quarter. The cause is the relocation of the capital to Armenia by a larg number of Russian residents.
The RA Central Bank data show that most of the cards are debt and charge cards - 64.6% and 31.9% respectively, with credit cards constituting 3.5%. Debit cards showed a 21.4% year-on-year increase, charge cards, a 4.5%, whereas the number and credit cards decreased by 57.6%. In the first half of 2022, the number of credit cards showed a 13% decrease, that of charge cards, a 6.1% increase and that of debit cards, a 3.4% increase. The number of charge cards increased both in the first and in the second quarters, while the number of debit cards mainly showed an increase in the 2nd quarter.
The share of Visa cards is 47.4% (over 1.3mln cards against 42.6% in the 2nd quarter of 2021). These are followed by ArCa cards (24.6% or 688,800 against 30.1% in the 2nd quarter of 2021), MasterCard (25.4% or 711,500 against 25.5% in the 2nd quarter of 2021). The other cards are international cards (mostly HSBC cards, AmEx and Diners Club) - 71,500 (2.6% against 1.8% in the 2nd quarter of 2021).
The number of ArCa-MIR cards is 10,832, with a 48.5% year-on-year increase or by 3,536 against a 60.1% increase (4,068) in the first half of 2022, with a 35.4% increase (2,800) in the 2nd quarter of 2022.
The number of local ArCa cards showed further decrease, whereas that of other international cards showed a serious increase against a decrease, with that of Visa and MasterCard showing further increase.
Specifically, ArCa cards showed an 11.2% decrease against a 5.5% increase, with the other international cards showing a year-on-year increase - from 8.2% up to 51.2%. Visa cards showed an accelerated increase from 4.6% up to 20.8%, with MasterCard cards showing a moderate increase - 6.1% to 8.4%. The number of ArCa-MIR cards, despite their much lower number as compared with that of other international cards, showed almost as high an increase as the combined number of the international cards. The number of Visa cards, other international cards and ArCa-MIR cards mainly showed an increase in the first half of 2022, with the highest increase recorded in the 2nd quarter.
The share of microprocessor cards reached 61.8% (against 48.1% last year) or over 1.7mln, with most of them being Visa cards (1.1mln) and MasterCard (573,000). The number of magnetic stripe cards was 717,000 (25.6% against 33.2% last year), most of them being local ArCa cards (675,500). The number of hybrid cards is 282,700 (10.1% against 17.5%), with most of them being Visa and MasterCard. The rest 70,800, 2.5% against 1.2% last year, are virtual Visa cards alone, which showed a 2.3-fold year-on-year increase against an 86.6% increase last year.
The number of debit cards is 1,806,000, that of charge cards is 892,300 and that of credit cards 99,400. The share of Visa cards is the total number of debit cards is 869,300, with MasterCard cards dominating credit cards (49,800). As regards charge cards, local cards gave the pas to Visa cards (418,500), followed by ArCa cards (238,800) and MasterCard ones (226,300).
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, with ArmSwissbank issuing its own cards since March 2018.
