YEREVAN, May 19. / ARKA /. Plastic cards issued by Armenian banks were used in the first quarter of this year to make a total of 257.16 billion drams worth transactions, an increase of 14% compared with the same period in 2013, the Central Bank said in a statement, posted on its official website. It said the number of transactions grew by 21 percent to 5,282,968.

Local ArCa payment cards were used to make 1,622,194 transactions worth 68 billion drams. This amount if compared with the first quarter of 2013 was 21.5% higher, while the number of transactions increased by 12.4%.

International VISA cards were used to make 2,282,247 transactions worth 120.8 billion drams, a 2.7 percent increase from the year earlier.

International MasterCard cards were used to make 1,074,909 transactions worth 50.9 billion drams, by 41.9 % more than in the first quarter of 2013.

Other international plastic cards were used to make 303,618 transactions worth 17.3 billion drams, 8.3% rise from the year earlier.

According to the Central Bank data, some 1,591,433 cards (up 15 %) were active in the first quarter, including 564,933 ArCa cards (an increase of 9 %), 677,448 VISA cards (25% growth ) , 303,674 MasterCard cards, (an increase of 7 %) and 45,378 other cards (a 12% growth ) .

Plastic cards are issued and serviced by 19 of 21 Armenia-based ​​commercial banks. These 19 banks are members of the single national payment system ArCa. ($ 1 - 413.83 drams). -0-