In Armenia there are over 3 million microprocessing cards with NFC  chips, making up 76.4% of the total 

ArmInfo.  As of October 1, 2024, the plastic card market in Armenia had 3.964 million cards, indicating an annual growth of 11%. Over the past three years, the  number of microprocessing cards with an NFC chip has increased by 2.4  times, with an annual growth of 22.4%. The total number of these  cards now exceeds 3 million, accounting for 76.4% of all cards in  circulation. This is evidenced by data from the Central Bank of the  Republic of Armenia. 

Among the microprocessing cards with NFC chips, Visa accounts for the  most - 58.8% or 1.782 million units, Mastercard accounts for 29.2% or  883.6 thousand units, other international cards make up 9.5% or 286.7  thousand units, and the remaining 2.5% or 77.2 thousand units are  local ArCa cards. It is noteworthy that among the microprocessing  cards, the local  ArCa showed impressive annual growth this time -  13.4 times. In comparison, Visa increased moderately  by 21%,   Mastercard by 12.3%, and other foreign cards (including HSBC cards,  AmEx, Diners Club, MIR, UnionPay) continued to grow at a high rate of  37.5%.

A similarly impressive annual growth is also recorded for virtual  cards - 2.3 times to 272,892 units (7% of the total number of cards).  Until mid-2022 these were only Visa, but since the third quarter of  the same year, Masterбard also appeared. This annual growth of  virtual cards was largely supported by a noticeable increase in  Masterбard - 18.3 times to 13,458 units. However, the continued  dominance of virtual Visa (95.1%) also ensured a significant annual  growth of 2.2 times, reaching 259,434 units. At the same time, cards  with a magnetic strip, the number of which decreased by 31% until  mid-2022, began to gradually grow from month to month after July 1 of  the same year. This was when the updated law on non-cash payments  came into force, requiring payments to be made exclusively by  non-cash means.

However, their current number of 630,991 units has significantly  decreased due to an annual decline of 25.3%, moving away from the  previous threshold of over a million units (which was the case before  April 2020). This decrease is primarily attributed to their  accelerated replacement with microprocessing ones. As a result, the  share of magnetic stripe cards in the total number has dropped from  42% to 16% in 2020-2024.  It is important to note that the annual  growth of magnetic stripe cards was driven by local ArCa cards, which  were predominantly provided to pensioners to receive pensions and  make non-cash payments because of their affordability. Currently,  there are now 607,798 ArCa cards with magnetic stripes, a nine fold  increase from the previous year. 

The share of hybrid cards has already decreased to 0.8% of the total  number, amounting to 30,602 units with an annual decline of almost 5  times. This decrease was primarily due to a significant reduction in  Visa and local ArCa cards by 89-90% and Mastercard by 64.1%. There  are 123,276  co-badged ArCa-MIR cards, accounting  for 3.1% of the  total number of cards. The annual growth of these cards has sharply  accelerated from 16.2% to 9 times, with the jump recorded in the  middle of this year.  The primary driver of the annual growth in the  total number of cards continues to be Visa cards, which increased by  23.7% over the year to 2.051 million units. This increase allowed   Visa to strengthen its dominant position from 46.3% to 51.8%.  Masterбard cards only increased by  8% year-on-year to 919,102 units.  As a result, their share in the total number slightly decreased from  23.8% to 23.2%. Meanshile, local ArCa cards experienced a decline in  annual growth from 15.3% 18.1% decline. The total number of ArCa  cards amounted to 686,589 units, moving them to a position below  Masterбard both in number and in share coverage, accounting for  17.3%. 

However, other foreign cards (including HSBC, AmEx, Diners Club, MIR,  UnionPay) showed much higher annual growth rates compared to Visa and  Masterбard combined, increasing by 32.4%  to 306,512  units.  This  further boosted their share in the total number from 6.5% to 7.7%.  Debit cards remain dominant in the overall cards structure - 65.7% or  2.603 million units, followed by payment cards - 33.9% or 1.344  million units. In contrast, the share of credit cards has  decreased  to 0.4% or 16,838 units. Moreover, the number of debit and payment  cards continues to rise at rates of 11.3% and 14.3% per annum,  respectively. 

As for credit cards, their number saw a significant reduction by half  in 2022, but began to increase again only from mid-2023. However, a  year later there was another sharp decline, this time by 4 times.  Until October 2022, Visa held the lead only in debit and settlement  cards, while Masterбard  in credit cards. By the end of the same  year, Visa had surpassed Masterбard from the leading position in  credit cards, and continues to hold the lead despite a significant  decline in the current year. As of October 1, 2024, there are already  1.248 million Visa debit cards, 796 thousand Visa settlement cards  and 7.5 thousand Visa credit cards.

It should be noted that in mid-November 2023, the Central Bank of the  Republic of Armenia granted permission to two Armenian banks - Acba  Bank and Converse Bank - to participate in the UnionPay International  (UPI) foreign settlement and payment system. Later, in 2024,  Evocabank also received permission to join this system. However, we  remind you that Acba Bank has been servicing UPI system cards since  October 2019. Acba and Converse started issuing cards of this system  in May 2024, and Evocabank began issuing such cards in September of  the same year.