YEREVAN, January 24, /ARKA/. The total amount of transactions made through Armenian Card (ArCA) payment system in 2012 December grew by almost 40 percent from November to 84.5 billion drams, the company told ARKA in a press release. It said overall more than 1,604,540 transactions were made, by 27 percent more than in November.

Plastic cards issued by ArCa members, including Mastercards and Visa cards, were used to make 1, 540, 347 transactions worth 80.8 billion drams, a 41.9 percent rise from the previous month. Visa cards issued by non-members were used to make about 47,787 transactions worth 2.4 billion drams, a 10.6 percent rise over the previous month, while MasterCards were used to make 16,406 transactions worth 1.2 billion drams, a 13 percent fall from the previous month.

The average transactions amount was 52.600 drams, the amount of a cash transaction was about 56,900 drams and a non-cash transaction was 31,900 drams.

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 with ArCa, ArCa Debit, ArCa Classic, ArCa Gold, ArCa Business, ArCa Affinity, ArCa Co-branded, ArCa Platinum, as ArCa pensioner cards.

The company is a full member of MasterCard Europe international payment system. It also processes VISA and American Express (Third Party Processor) cards. ($1 – 405.44 drams). -0-