Yerevan, February 21 /Mediamax/. During the year of 2007, there were 4 428 550 operations by plastic cards at the whole sum of 213 634mln 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 17035mln AMD.

The number of cards, being in circulation by the end of 2007, made 327 852, which is 1.57 times more (118 739 cards), as compared to 2006.

By the end of 2007, the number of ArCa [Armenian Card] cards increased 1.54 times (50 199 cards more) as compared to the end of 2006, thus making 142 482.

The number of cards of international systems during the accounting period on the whole increased 1.59 times (68 540 cards more). The number of VISA cards increased by 48 547 cards (1.54 times), thus making 139 280, and the number of MasterCard cards increased twice (118 48 cards), thus making 23 665.

During the year of 2007, 2 081 054 operations at the whole sum of 74889mln AMD were realized using ArCa cards. The volume of operations grew by 29418mln AMD (1.65 times) as compared to the 2006.

The volume of operations, carried out with the use of VISA cards by the end of 2007, made 90 234mln AMD (1 436 478 operations), and with the use of MasterCard - 19904mln AMD (319 346 operations). As compared to the year of 2006, the indices increased correspondingly by 29723mln and 7239mln AMD.

There were 591 675 operations at the whole sum of 28607mln AMD realized with the use of other international cards during the accounting period, which is for 9008mln AMD more than in 2006.

During the year of 2007, there were on average 1.4 operations monthly realized with the use of one ArCa card. The average volume of one operation made 50 thousand AMD, the index having increased by 3 thousand AMD, as compared to the 2006.

By the end of 2007, there were 20 banks in Armenia, members of the ArCa payment system, which were providing and operating plastic cards.