Yerevan /Mediamax/. In the third quarter of 2008, there were 1 748 251 operations by plastic cards## at the whole sum of 86bln AMD realized in 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 7.3bln AMD.

The number of cards in circulation by the end of the third quarter of 2008, made 428 789, which is 8.8% more (34 538 cards), as compared to the end of the second quarter of 2008.

By the end of the third quarter of 2008, the number of active ArCa [Armenian Card] cards increased for 7.2% (13 212 cards more), as compared to the end of the first quarter, thus making 196 953.

The number of cards of international systems during the accounting period on the whole increased for 10% (21 236 cards more). The number of VISA cards increased for 7.3% (10 725 cards), thus making 157 867, and the number of MasterCard cards increased for 17.6% (5 623 cards), thus making 37 524.

In the accounting period, 746 379 operations at the whole sum of 29.9bln AMD were realized using ArCa cards. The volume of operations grew by 11bln AMD (59%) as compared to the third quarter of 2007.

The volume of operations, carried out with the use of VISA cards in the third quarter of 2008, made 32.6bln AMD (543 665 operations), and with the use of MasterCard – 11.8bln AMD (210 075 operations). As compared the third quarter of 2007, the indices increased correspondingly by 8.5 and 6.4bln AMD.

There were 248 132 operations at the total sum of 11.7bln AMD realized with the use of other international cards during the accounting period, which is for 4bln AMD more than in the third quarter of 2007.

In the third quarter of the year, there were on average 1.3 operations realized monthly with the use of one ArCa card. The average volume of one operation made 40 thousand AMD.

By the end of the third quarter of 2008, there were 20 banks in Armenia providing and operating plastic cards, 19 of which are members of ArCa payment system.