Yerevan/Mediamax/. 8.848.052 operations with plastic cards at the total sum of 428bln AMD were realized on the territory of Armenia in 2009.

Mediamax was informed in the press service of the Central Bank of Armenia that the volume of non-cash payments by cards made 31bln AMD.

The volume of non-cash payments by cards made 7% from the total volume of card operations. All in all, the volume of card operations increased by 19%, as compared to 2008.

The number of cards in circulation at the end of 2009 made 579.431, which exceeds the index of the previous year by 27.5% (125.074 cards).

As of the end of 2009, the number of active ArCa (Armenian Card) cards increased by 40.9% (81.974 cards) as compared to the end of 2008 and made 282 164.

The number of international systems’ cards increased by 17% (43.100 cards) in the accounting period.

In this volume, the number of VISA cards increased by 21.5% (35.695 cards) and made 201.589, and the number of Master Card increased by 27.9 % (13.339 cards) and made 61.108.

The total volume of card transactions increased by 31.2% in 2009, as compared to 2008, and the number of deals – by 34.3%.

In the accounting period, 4.177.660 operations at the total sum of 173bln AMD were realized by means of ArCa cards. The volume of operations increased for 55.8bln AMD (or by 47%) as compared to 2008.

The volume of operations, realized by VISA cards in 2009, made 152bln AMD (2.202.572 operations), and by MasterCard cards – 62bln AMD (1.158.843 operations). As compared to 2008, these indices increased by 19.3% and 59% respectively.

908.977 operations at the total sum of 41bln AMD were realized by other international cards in 2009, and this index yields by 3.9% to the analogous index of 2008.

At the end of 2009, 21 banks dealt with provision or maintenance of plastic cards in Armenia, 19 of which are members of the single ArCa payment system.