Armenian card issues over 43,598 plastic cards in December 2012

YEREVAN, January 24. /ARKA/. Armenia’s payment system Armenian Card (ArCa) issued 43,598 plastic cards in December 2012 – 40.7% year-on-year growth, the company’s press agency reported today.  

According to the report, the system issued 22,510 ArCa cards in December 2012 (65.9% year-on-year growth), 8,559 Visa (14.6% growth) and 12,529 MasterCard (26.1% growth). 

The number of active cards has grown 32% since December 2011 to over 1 million in Dec 2012.  

Some 675,148 plastic cards were used in December 2012 for carrying out transactions against 534,746 in the previous year’s December. Of them, 349,413 were ArCa cards (18.7% year-on-year growth), 146,913 Visa cards (33.2% growth) and 148,822 MasterCard (38.6% growth).    

The press office also says that the number of cards used for transactions made up 67% of the total number of active cards in December 2012. 

Armenian Card CJSC was established on March 16, 2000 as a united national payment system. Today 19 of Armenia’s 21 commercial banks participate in ArCa payment system. The company is a full member of MasterCard Europe international payment system.  It also processes VISA and American Express (Third Party Processor) cards. -0-