YEREVAN, September 9. /ARKA/. Total volume of all card transactions in Armenia amounted to 297.9bln drams in the second quarter of this year, a 12% increase against the same period of 2013, the central bank reports on its website.

Number of card transactions in the period totaled 6,129,235 (22% increase).

A total of 1,896,379 transactions were effected using local ArCa cards, worth 82.5bln drams. It is an increase of 22% compared to the second quarter of 2013.

Card transactions with VISA rose by 0.11% to 137.2bln drams; the number of these transactions was 2,665074 in the period.

MasterCard was used in 1,220,032 transactions worth a total of 58 bln drams in the period (39.9% increase).

Other international plastic cards were used in a total of 347,750 transactions worth 20.2 bln drams, a 5.4% increase compared to Q2 the year before.

According to the central bank, a total of 1,628,644 cards were in circulation in the period (10.3% increase), including 566,792 ArCa cards (3.9% increase), 702,150 VISA (18.2% increase), 314,564 MasterCards (6.3% growth) and 45,138 other cards (9.7% growth).

According to the central bank, a total of 1,628,644 cards were in circulation in the period (10.3% increase), including 566,792 ArCa cards (3.9% increase), 702,150 VISA (18.2% increase), 314,564 MasterCards (6.3% growth) and 45,138 other cards (9.7% growth).

Card issuance and servicing is provided by 19 commercial banks out of 21 operating in Armenia. Nineteen commercial banks are members of uniform ArCa payment system. ($1=409.7drams).  --0—