Armenia has 3.4 million microprocessing cards with  NFC chips,  accounting for 79% of the total

ArmInfo. By January 1, 2025, there were over 4.3 million cards in the plastic market of Armenia, with an annual growth of 16.3%. During the same period,  microprocessing cards with an NFC chip have increased by 2.3 times  over three years, with a 31% increase in 2024 (compared to 24% in  2023), totaling 3.4 million units or 79% of the total number of  cards, as evidenced by data of RA Central Bank. 

According to the source, the dominant position remains with Visa  cards - 56.3% or 1.919 million units, Mastercard accounts for 27.6%  or 938.8 thousand units. Other international cards make up 9.2% or  313.7 thousand units, and the remaining 6.9% or 234.8 thousand units  are local ArCa cards. It is worth noting that ArCa has shown  impressive growth for the second year in a row among microprocessing  cards, with growth rates acceleration sharply from 7 times to 27  times. This growth is attribute to the high activity of local card  chipping. Despite relatively restrained growth rate, Visa, the  leading microprocessing card, also accelerated in growth - from 16.6%  to 25.1%, Visa outpaced Mastercard in terms of growth rates, as  Mastercard's growth slowed from 27.3% to 14.5%. However, Mastercard  still yielded to the growth of other foreign cards (including HSBC  cards, AmEx, Diners Club, MIR, UPI), which grew by  38.6% (compared  to 43% the previous year). 

Impressive growth has also been  recorded for virtual cards - 2.3  times (compared to 32.6% a year ago) to 309,866 thousand units (with  an increase in the share in the total number of cards from 3.6% to  9.1%).  Until mid-2022, only Visa offered virtual cards, but since  the third quarter Masterбard has also entered the market. The annual  growth of virtual cards is supported by a noticeable increase in both  Masterбard - by 6.4 times, and Visa - by 2.2 times. However, Visa   dominates in quantity - 291,182 thousand units.  Mean while, the  number of magnetic stripe cards which had by 31% until mid-2022,  began to gradually grow from month to month after July 1 of the same  year. This increase followed the updated law on non-cash payments  coming into force, which obliged payments to be made exclusively by  non-cash means. The current number of magnetic stripe cards stands at  568,114 thousand units, showing an annual decline of 35% (against  12.7% growth in 2023). This decline has moved the number of magnetic  cards further away from the previous milestone of more than a million  units (at the beginning of 2020). This decline is fully explained by  their accelerated replacement with microprocessing cards.

 As a result, the share of magnetic stripe cards in the total number  decreased from 42% to 17% in 2020- 2024, while the share of  microprocessing cards with an NFC chip increased from 17% to 79%.  Moreover, it is worth noting that over 99% of these magnetic stripe  cards are local ArCa. Due to their affordability, they were mainly  provided to pensioners to receive pensions and make cashless  payments. Specifically, there were 564,573 thousand ArCa cards with  magnetic stripe by the end of 2024, and their number decreased by 33%  over the year (compared to 14.5% growth in 2023). The share of hybrid  cards has already decreased to 0.7% of the total number, amounting to  29,981 thousand. with an annual decrease of 4.4 times. This was due  to a significant reduction in the dominant Visa and Mastercard by a  total of 4 times, and a noticeable decline in local ArCa by 13.4  times. There are 154,133 thousand co-badged ArCa-MIR cards accounting  for 3.6% of the total number of cards. the growth of these cards has  sharply accelerated over the year, increasing from 65.4% to 7.6  times. In 2022-2024, their number increased by 23 times. 

Let us recall that in 2022, starting from March, the number of these  cards began to increase sharply, accelerating monthly due to high  demand from relocates arriving in Armenia at that time (mainly from  Russia). However, a year later the excitement died down and the pace  returned to the normal growth trajectory. This trend continued until  April 2024, after which growth  began to sharply gain momentum. It is  important to note that in February 2024, NSPK MIR was included in the  sanctions list and on March 30, the linking of the national card  systems of Armenia and Russia - ArCa and MIR - was suspended. This  caused banks to refuse to service MIR cards. Only VTB Bank (Armenia),  which started issuing MIR cards in mid-2022 and has its own  processing, continued to service them. Visa cards continue to be the  driver of the annual growth in the total number of cards,  increasing  by 28.8% over the year to 2.219 million units, which allowed the  dominance to increase from 46.3% to 51.3%. Masterбard cards increased  by 11.6% year- on-year to 979,516 units, with their share  in the  total number decreasing from 23.6% to 22.6%.  Meanwhile,  local ArCa  cards, which saw a decline of 6.5%, amounted to 814,872  units,  moving further away from Masterбard both in quantity and  share  coverage of 18.8% (compared to 23.4% in 2023). Other foreign cards  (including HSBC cards, AmEx, Diners Club, MIR, UPI) numbered 313,968  units, with an annual growth of 26.2%,  further increasing their  share in the total number from 6.7% to 7.3%. 

Debit cards continue to dominate the  total number of cards - 65.4%  or 2.828 million units. Payment cards follow closely behind at 34.2%  or 1.481 million units, while the share of credit cards has already  decreased to 0.4%, totaling 19.032 thousand units. Moreover, the  number of debit and payment cards continues to grow - by 15.7% and  22.2% per annum, respectively. In contrast, the number of credit  cards saw a significant reduction in 2022, dropping by half, and only  managed to reach 1.5% growth in 2023, before decreasing again in  2024,  this time- by 3.4 times. Previously Visa held the lead in  debit and payment cards, while  Masterбard was the leader in credit  cards. However, starting from the fourth quarter of 2022, Visa began  to displace Masterбard from the top position in credit cards. 

By January 1, 2025, there were already over 1.3 million Visa debit  cards, 881.2 thousand Visa payment cards and 10.8 thousand Visa  credit cards in circulation. It is important to note that  three  Armenian banks - Acba Bank and Converse Bank (since May 2024) and  Evocabank (since September 2024) have recently started issuing and  servicing  cards from the foreign payment system UnionPay  International (UPI). Acba Bank has been servicing UPI cards since  October 2019. Regarding HSBC cards, with the completion of the merger  of HSBC Bank Armenia with Ardshinbank on November 29, 2024,   "personalized" cards from HSBC Bank  are no longer available in the  Armenian market.Cardholders were offered Visa or Mastercard options  as replacements.

Let us remind you that since 2024, an important technological  solution has been introduced - the ability to accept payments and pay  for ArCa cards on the Internet through the EMV 3DS 2.0 EPS Armenian  Card domain. This was implemented to ensure the security of online  payments for ArCa cards across all banks in Armenia, regardless of  the platform they are processed on. In November 2024, Armenian Card  introduced the ArCa Pay instant express payment system,  which  Ameriabank, Evocabank, Converse Bank and AMIO Bank immediately  connected to. The immediate plans are to connect almost all banks and  payment and settlement organizations in Armenia to this system.  According to the decision of the Central Bank, starting from October  2025, there will be a requirement to ensure operational compatibility  in payments or transfers using QR codes (a single image of a QR code  installed by banks and payment and settlement organizations at points  of sale and/or services) will come into force.