YEREVAN, April 19. /ARKA/. Armenia’s ArCa payment system issued 38,444 plastic cards in March 2012 – 21.6% year-on year growth, the company’s press office reported on Thursday.

The system issued 19,688 ArCa cards in March 2012 (70.4% year-on-year increase), 7,639 Visa cards (26.2% decrease) and 11,217 MasterCards (13.9% growth).

The total number of active cards reached 817,600 in March 2012 ensuring 34.2% growth, compared with the same month a year earlier.
The number of cards on which transactions had been effected was 561,533 in March 2012 against 409,719 in March 2011. Of them, 303,199 were ArCa cards (25.6% year-on-year growth), 138,073 Visa cards (27.5% growth) and 120,261 Master Cards (100.3% increase).

The share of plastic cards on which deals had been effected was 69%.
Armenian Card CJSC was established on March 16, 2000 as national payment system.
Now 19 or 21 commercial banks of Armenia are members of ArCa system.
Various ArCa-based products are circulating now. They are ArCa Debit, ArCa Classic, ArCa Gold, ArCa Business, ArCa Affinity, ArCa Co-branded, ArCa Platinum and ArCa pension cards.

The company is a full member of Master Card Europe international payment system. It also process cards of VISA and American Express (Third Party Processor). ($1 – AMD 393). -0--