YEREVAN, February 14. /ARKA/. More citizens of Armenia are using now banking cards to make various non-cash transactions, the executive director of the Union of Banks of Armenia Seyran Sargsyan told reporters on Friday.
He said banking cards of almost all payment and settlement systems are serviced in Armenia – the national ArCa, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club, JCB (Japanese system), which is important in terms of tourism industry’s development.
According to him, the number of active payment cards in Armenia by the end of 2019 stood at 2 million 390 thousand.
“This suggests that there are citizens, who hold more than one banking card, and the interest in banking cards in the country is growing,” Sargsyan said.
He also said that the number of transactions made by using banking cards increased by 34.5%, while the total number of both cash and non-cash transactions made by using banking cards reached 64 million, which is important in terms of fighting against shadow turnover.
He specified that about half of the transactions – 33 million – were cash-in transactions, and the rest were non-cash payments at various points of sale.
According to Sargsyan, the volume of transactions made by using banking cards in 2019 amounted to 2.3 trillion drams, which is 21.3% more than in 2018.
He also said that cashing transactions increased by 13%, and cashless payments by 52%. At the end of 2019 there were 1,400 ATMs in Armenia, and the number of outlets accepting bank cards grew to 10,500. ($1 – 479.11 drams). -0-
