YEREVAN, May 19. /ARКА/. The number of non-cash transactions in Armenia has grown by 73.5% over the last 12 months, Executive Director of the Union of Banks of Armenia (UBA) Seyran Sargsyan said at a press conference on Wednesday.

According to him, the number of payment cards in the first quarter of 2021 grew by 50,900 and by 87,000 over the last 12 months.

"This was natural against the backdrop of  the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, when customers chose non-cash payments and online orders," Sargsyan said.

He noted that in terms of the number of transactions, in the first quarter of 2021 alone the growth amounted to 44.6%, reaching 28.4 million transactions, while in terms of volume the growth amounted to 15.9% or 746 billion drams.

He said an analysis shows that in the first quarter of 2019 for the first time the number of non-cash transactions exceeded those of cash transactions making 63% of the total.

"Cash transactions in the first quarter of 2021 grew by 12.3% as opposed to the last quarter of 2020, and non-cash transactions by 73.5%. These are high growth rates," Sargsyan said.

As for their volume, he said, about 69% of transactions were cash withdrawals and only 31% were non-cash payments for goods and services.

"At the same time,  the number of non-cash transactions on the Internet increased by almost 77.3% (in terms of volume the growth amounted to  34.8%), transactions through ATMs grew by 11.9% (in terms of volume by 10.9%) ), and transactions at retail outlets grew by 64.9% (in terms of volume by 19%)," Sargsyan said.

He also noted that in the first quarter the number of ATMs increased by 24, and that of POS terminals by 900. $1 - 521.55 drams) .– 0–