YEREVAN, August 19. /ARKA/. ArCa Armenian payment system issued 20,417 plastic cards in July 2011 – 20.4% year-on-year growth, the company’s press office reported on Friday.

The system issued 9,176 ArCa cards in July (96.4% year-on-year growth), 5,087 Visa cards (33.6% decline) and 6,154 Master Cards (33.2% growth).

The total number of effective cards exceeded 652,000 in July 2011 - 25.3% year-on-year growth. Transactions were effected on 428,647 cards in July 2011 against 340,871 in the same month a year earlier.

Some 247,511 of these 428,647 are ArCa cards (18.4% growth), 113,166 are Visa cards (36.9% growth) and 67,970 MasterCards (38.2% growth). Effective cards on which transactions were operated made up 65% of all effective cards in July 2011.

Armenian Card CJSC was established on March 16, 2000 as a united national payment system.
Today 19 of Armenia’s 21 commercial banks participate in ArCa payment system.

The company is a full member of MasterCard Europe international payment system. It also processes VISA and American Express (Third Party Processor) cards. ($1 = AMD 366.51). –0–