Yerevan, February 16 /Mediamax/. During the year of 2006, there were 3.029.569 operations by plastic cards at the whole sum of 138245mln AMD realized on the territory of Armenia.

As Mediamax was told in the press service of the Central Bank of Armenia, the volume of non-cash payments with the use of plastic cards made 11322mln AMD.

The number of cards, being in circulation by the end of 2006, made 209.113, which is 1.5 times more (71.927 cards), as compared to 2005.

By the end of 2006, the number of ArCa [Armenian Card] cards increased 1.65 times (36.586 cards more) as compared to the end of 2005, thus making 92.283.

The number of cards of international systems during the accounting period on the whole increased 1.43 times (35.341 cards more). The number of VISA cards increased by 27.894 cards (1.44 times), thus making 90.733, and the number of MasterCard cards increased twice (5.916 cards), thus making 11.817.

During the year of 2006, 1.408.879 operations at the whole sum of 45471mln AMD were realized using ArCa cards. The volume of operations grew by 17649mln AMD (1.25 times) as compared to the 2005.

The volume of operations, carried out with the use of VISA cards by the end of 2006, made 60511mln AMD (1.008.054 operations), and with the use of MasterCard - 12664mln AMD (169.523 operations). As compared to the year of 2005, the indices increased correspondingly by 20916mln and 4975mln AMD.

There were 443.113 operations at the whole sum of 19598mln AMD realized with the use of other international cards during the accounting period, which is for 4569mln AMD more than in 2005.

During the year of 2006, there were on average 1.5 operations monthly realized with the use of one ArCa card. The average volume of one operation made 32 thousand AMD, the index having increased by 5 thousand AMD, as compared to the 2005.

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