Yerevan, November 8 /Mediamax/. During the third quarter of 2006, there were 789.433 operations by plastic cards at the whole sum of 38163mln AMD realized on the territory of Armenia.

As Mediamax was told in the press service of the Central Bank of Armenia, the volume of cashless payments with the use of plastic cards made 2814mln AMD.

The number of cards, being in circulation by the end of the third quarter of 2006, made 190.232, which is 1.08 times more (14.128 cards), as compared to the second quarter.

By the end of the third quarter of 2006, the number of active ArCa [Armenian Card] cards increased 1.09 times (6.758 cards more) as compared to the second quarter, thus making 82.447.

The number of cards of international systems during the accounting period on the whole increased 1.07 times (7.370 cards more).

The number of VISA cards increased by 5.485 cards (1.07 times), thus making 83.676, and the number of MasterCard cards increased 1.17 times (1446 cards more), thus making 9.916.

During the third quarter of 2006, 358.275 operations at the whole sum of 12318mln AMD were realized using ArCa cards. The volume of operations grew by 2490mln AMD (1.25 times) as compared to the second quarter of 2006.

The volume of operations, carried out with the use of VISA cards by the end of the third quarter of 2006, made 16593mln AMD (266.586 operations), and with the use of MasterCard - 4155mln AMD (50.164 operations). As compared to the second quarter of 2006, the indices increased correspondingly by 2749mln and 1494mln AMD.

There were 114.408 operations at the whole sum of 5097mln AMD realized with the use of other international cards during the accounting period, that is for 486mln AMD more that during the second quarter.

During the third quarter, there were on average 1.4 operations monthly realized with the use of one ArCa card. The average volume of one operation made 34 thousand AMD, the index having increased by 5 thousand AMD, as compared to the second quarter.

By the end of the third quarter of 2006, there are 20 banks in Armenia, providing and operating plastic cards, at that 18 out of the 20 mentioned are members of the ArCa payment system.