YEREVAN, September 19, /ARKA/. All types of plastic cards were used in Armenia to make 340.1 billion drams worth transactions in the first half of 2016, the Central Bank reported today adding also that the amount represented a 6.3% decline when compared to the same period of 2015. It also said the number of transactions grew by 1.5% year-on-year to 7,734,443.

Local ArCa cards were used to make a total of 2,090.620 transactions worth 89.1 billion drams, a 2.1% rise from the year before.

International VISA plastic cards were used to make 3,586,584 transactions worth 166.1 billion drams. Compared with the same period last year the amount was higher by 4.1%, the Central Bank said.
Also international MasterCard plastic cards were used to make 1,955,221 transactions worth 81.1 billion drams, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%.

The amount of transactions made by using other international plastic was said to have slashed  by 89% from the year before to 3.7  billion drams (102,018 transactions).

According to the Central Bank, at the end of the reporting period, the total number of cards in circulation stood at 1,756,305 (an increase of 6.3%). Of them 536,415 were ArCa cards (down 1.4%), 784,202 were VISA cards (an increase of 3%), 392,148 were MasterCard cards (30% growth) and 45,540 were other cards (a drop of 1.2%).

Of 20 local commercial banks 19 issued and serviced plastic cards. All are members of the local single payment system ArCa. ($ 1 - 476.93 drams). 0-