YEREVAN, March 12. /ARKA/. The Union of Banks of Armenia called on citizens to make payments by bank transfers as one of the measures to combat the spread of coronavirus.
“A WHO representative, in an interview with The Telegraph, urged the population to refrain from using cash as a possible carrier of coronavirus, and switch to cashless transactions. Joining this call by WHO, the Union of Banks of Armenia provides information on growth trends in cashless transactions,” the Union said.
According to it, in 2019, payment cards were used to make 65 million transactions, which is 34.5% more than in the previous year. The volume of these transactions amounted to 2.344 trillion drams, an increase of 21.3%.
Along with the growth, the ratio of cash and non-cash transactions also changed, 52% of all transactions were transactions with cash, and 48% – non-cash.
In particular, last year about 34 million cashing transactions were completed, which is 11.5% more than in 2018. The number of non-cash transactions amounted to 31 million with an increase of 72.9%. The volume of non-cash transactions made by using plastic cards amounted to 602 billion drams in 2019, an increase of 52%.
The Union of Banks of Armenia said also the volume of transactions through POS-terminals increased by 17.1%, through the Internet – by 53%. Last year, the number of transactions via POS-terminals increased by 60.6%, and through the Internet – by 74.5%.
The increase in non-cash transactions is also due to an increase in the number of POS-terminals at points of sale and services. In 2019, their number grew from 8,796 to 10,503. ($ 1 – 482.09 dram) -0-
