YEREVAN, March 13. / ARKA /. Armenian banks-issued plastic cards were used outside the country in January 2013 to make a total of 6.7 billion drams worth transaction, a 25.7 percent increase over the previous month, the Central Bank of Armenia said in its monthly bulletin for January 2013.

It said overall 118,300 transactions were made in the reporting period, a rise of 13.5 percent if compared to the previous month. The amount of cashless transactions in the same time span soared by almost 40 percent from 2012 December to 5.1 billion drams.

According to the bulletin, the cards were used outside the country to also withdraw 1.59 billion drams worth money, by 4.5 percent less than in 2012 December.

All 21 Armenia-based banks issue and service various banking cards. Nineteen of them are members of the unified ArCa payment system. ($1 – 411,21 drams). —0—