Visa manager: volume of transactions made by using Visa cards in Armenia surges 38%

YEREVAN, June 6. /ARKA/. The volume of transactions made by using Visa cards in Armenia, including via ATMs and POS terminals, surged by 38% in the first quarter of this year fr om a year before, Irina Kamkhadze, manager for Visa business development in Armenia, Georgia and Moldova, said Tuesday at a news conference. 

She refrained from pointing out particular figures, but said that the amount of Visa card transactions in the trade network grew 43% in the first quarter. 

“Remarkable is that the total number of transactions in trade and service centers grew 79% - the highest quarterly growth in Armenia,” she said. 

The number of Visa cards issued by Armenian commercial banks grew by 35% and the number of ATMs POS terminals by 45%. 

Kamkhadze also said that the ratio of the number of transactions in the trade network to the total number of Visa transactions rose 10%. 

“This is a quite high result, compared with Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Georgia, wh ere indicators range between 7 and 8%,” she said. “This shows that Visa cards are actively used in Armenia’s trade network.” 

Armenian Card local payment system issued 31,591 plastic cards in April 2012 – 36.8% year-on-year growth. 

It issued 12,205 ArCa cards in Apr 2012 (15.9% year-on-year growth), 7,131 Visa cards (14.6% growth) and 12,255 MasterCards (93.4% growth). -0-