YEREVAN, April 17. /ARKA/. The total amount of non-cash transactions made in Armenia by using banking cards in 2018 soared by 47.2% from the previous year to 395.9 billion drams, the Union of Banks of Armenia (UBA) reported. According to UBA Executive Director Seyran Sargsyan, there are two reasons behind the growth in non-cash transactions- first is a 20.4% increase in the number of banking cards used as a means of payment , and the second is the understanding of cardholders the advantages of using cards.
He said there may a third reason- the reduction of the “shadow”. “As the total amount of non-cash transactions grew, the average volume of a single transaction dropped to 22,000 drams, which means that card holders also began to use their payment cards to pay for small purchases more often,” said Sargsyan.
In addition, according to him, last year there was a sharp increase in transactions made by cards on the Internet, in particular, the number of such transactions increased by 75.4%, and the volume – by 73%.
“These growth rates will continue for a long time, given the international growth trends of transactions on the Internet,” he added. In 2018, the number of payment cards grew by 18% to well over 2 million. Last year, more than 48.1 million transactions were made by using payment cards, which is 32.8% more than in the previous year. ($ 1 – 484.75 drams). -0—
