YEREVAN, March 19. /ARKA/. The total amount of non-cash transactions made in Armenia through banks is still low, despite the widespread use of modern technologies, Chairman of the Union of Banks of Armenia Artak Hanesyan, who is also CEO of Ameriabank, told a news conference today.

According to official data, in 2018, the share of non-cash transactions in the total amount of banking transactions, carried out with banking cards, was 20% and the share of cash transactions - 80%.

"Armenia is one of the leaders in terms of using the Internet among former Soviet republics and in the region, however, the rate of non-cash transactions is still at a low level. In our society, cash transactions are still in trend," said Hanesyan.

"We need to change the current stereotypes and show that non-cash transactions are more convenient and reliable and compensation is possible in case of losses," he said, adding that this is not possible with cash transactions.

According to Hanesyan, modern technologies are so developed that there is no need even for credit cards, as transactions can be carried out with the help of cell phones. “Much needs to be done to make those 20% reach 80%,” he stressed.

The number of cash transactions in 2018 amounted to 30,110,602, which was by 19.3% more than in 2017, and the number of non-cash transactions amounted to 18,014,158 (an increase of 63.8%). The volume of cash transactions amounted to 1.536.5 trillion drams (an increase of 17.5%), and that of non-cash transactions to 395.9 billion drams (an increase of 47.2%).

In 2018, there were 2,024,070 payment cards (an increase of 18.04%). ($ 1 - 486.52 drams). -0-