ArmInfo. Moscow notes with regret that Yerevan bowed to West's pressure on the issue of servicing cards of the MIR payment system. This was stated on April 3 during a weekly briefing by spokesperson of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, when asked to comment on the termination of service of MIR cards in Armenia.

ArmInfo.The Kremlin does not regard the refusal of Armenian banks to service Russian Mir cards as  an unfriendly step, but explains this decision by pressure from the United States, follows from a statement by spokesperson of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.

ArmInfo.The South Caucasus Railway will suspend the sale of tickets using MIR cards from March 30. 

ArmInfo. The link between the national card systems of Armenia and Russia - ArCa and MIR - will be suspended from March 30. 

ArmInfo.The share of non-cash transactions in 2023 increased to 51% of the total volume In the Armenian plastic card market, (from 40% in 2022), to 3.2 trillion drams ($7.9 billion) in absolute terms. Moreover, the y-o-y growth rate of the volume of non-cash transactions accelerated from 69.7% to 2-fold. The increase in the share of non-cash transactions with Armenian cards resulted from a legislative restriction on cash transactions introduced from July 1, 2022. 

ArmInfo.The Armenian Card CJSC has announced its plans to stop operating the arca.am  application. 

ArmInfo.

ArmInfo.The Armenian Parliament held a discussion on the topical issue of banking tariffs. This problem  becomes quite acute due to the transition to a significant growth of non-cash transactions in the country, associated with the adoption of a law regulating non-cash circulation a year ago and actually obliging economic entities to accept non-cash payments for goods and services. 

ArmInfo. The Armenian Parliament held a discussion on the topical issue of banking tariffs. This problem becomes quite acute due to the transition to a significant growth of non-cash transactions in the country, associated with the adoption of  a law regulating non-cash circulation a year ago and actually  obliging economic entities to accept non-cash payments for goods and  services. 

ArmInfo.The growing demand for digital services by tens of thousands of resettlers has seriously motivated the banking market of Armenia to activate the digital transformation of business models, accelerating the technological development of the card segment towards the introduction of the latest payment instruments.  This is stated in the latest (#27) analytical bulletin of ArmInfo "Armenian banks in the card business" published recently.

ArmInfo. In Armenia, the total volume of plastic transactions accelerated y-o-y growth from 26.3% in  2021 to 34.7% in 2022, exceeding 4.4 trillion drams or $11.3 billion (including transactions abroad with cards of Armenian issuing banks).  This is evidenced by the data of the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia, according to which the volume of transactions carried out  abroad with the cards of the issuing banks of Armenia increased 2.1-fold on a y-o-y terms up to 456.5 billion drams or 1.2 billion  dollars (10.3% of the total plastic transactions).

ArmInfo. This January-September, the volume of plastic card transactions showed a 33.1% growth, up to AMD 3,020bln, against a 21.6% growth last January-September (including transactions effected abroad by means of Armenian issuing banks'  cards).

ArmInfo.

ArmInfo. Over the last two years, the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic has greatly impacted our customary way of life. However, every cloud has a silver lining – the pandemic has caused the humankind to make a leap into the future of digital reality, making this period at least a decade shorter.

ArmInfo. In Armenia, the total volume of plastic transactions slowed down the y-o-y growth from 32.5% in 9 months of 2020 to 21.6% in 9 months of 2021, amounting to  2.3 trillion AMD (including transactions abroad with cards of  Armenian issuing banks). This is evidenced by the data of the RA  Central Bank.

ArmInfo.

ArmInfo. In Armenia, the total  volume of plastic transactions slowed down from 21.3% in 2019 to 13%  in 2020, amounting to AMD 2.6 trillion (taking into account  transactions abroad with cards of Armenian issuing banks). This is  evidenced by the data of the RA Central Bank.

ArmInfo. In Armenia, the share of  non-cash card transactions remained at the level of 30% in the total  volume of plastic transactions by July 1, 2020. But the y-o-y growth  in the volume of non-cash card transactions slowed down from last  year's 48% to the current 38%, amounting by the results of the first  half of this year to 351 billion drams ($ 728 million). The  preservation of the share, despite the slowdown in volumes, is due to  the activity of Internet commerce, the popularization of mobile and  web applications by banks and Armenian Card, and such effective  measures to encourage non-cash transactions as CashBack. According to  the data of the Central Bank of the Republic of Armenia, five years  earlier (H1 of 2015), the share of non-cash transactions in the total  volume of plastic transactions was 12%, and by July 1, 2019 it had  reached 24%.

ArmInfo.By April 1, 2020 the share of non-cash card transactions reached 30% of the total volume of plastic transactions in Armenia.

ArmInfo.