Yerevan/Mediamax/. 2.790.246 operations with plastic cards at the total sum of 130bln AMD were realized on the territory of Armenia in the second quarter, 2010.

Mediamax was informed in the press service of the Central Bank of Armenia that the volume of non-cash payments by cards made 9.4bln 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 31% or for 2.2bln AMD, as compared to the second quarter, 2009.

The number of cards in circulation at the end of the second quarter, 2010, made 638 002, which exceeds the index of the previous quarter by 4.2% (25 583 cards).

As of the end of the second quarter, 2010, the number of active ArCa (Armenian Card) cards increased by 1.3% (3645 cards) as compared to the end of the previous quarter, and made 295 735.

The number of international systems’ cards increased by 6.8% (21 938 cards) in the accounting period.

In this volume, the number of VISA cards increased by 6% (12 551 cards) and made 222 787, and the number of Master Card increased by 11% (8510 cards) and made 85 387.

The total volume of card transactions increased by 33% in the second quarter, 2010, as compared to the same period of last year, and the number of deals – by 29%.

In the accounting period, 1 320 746 operations at the total sum of 51bln AMD were realized by means of ArCa cards. The volume of operations increased for 13bln AMD (or by 35%) as compared to the second quarter, 2009.

The volume of operations, realized by VISA cards in the second quarter, made 39bln AMD (869 687 operations), and by MasterCard cards – 19bln AMD (363 246 operations). As compared to the second quarter, 2009, these indices increased by 39% and 23,6%.respectively.

236 567 operations at the total sum of 11bln AMD were realized by other international cards in the second quarter, 2010, and this index exceeds for 1.4bln AMD the analogous index of 2009.

At the end of the second quarter, 2010, 20 banks dealt with provision or maintenance of plastic cards in Armenia, 19 of which are members of the single ArCa payment system.