Number of plastic cards in circulation rise by 209113 by late 2006

[Antonian Lara]

Arka News Agency, Armenia
Feb 16 2007

NUMBER OF PLASTIC CARDS IN CIRCULATION RISE BY 71927 TO 209113 BY
LATE 2006

YEREVAN, February 16. /ARKA/. The number of plastic cards in
circulation rose by 71927 or more than 1.5 times and reached 209113
by late 2006.
Press office of the Central Bank of Armenia told Friday to ARKA News
Agency that the number of Armenian Card (ArCa) plastic cards grew by
36586 or 1.65 times in 2006 to 92283, and the number of international
plastic cards in circulation reached 116830 after growing 1.43 times
or by 35341. Of them, VISA cards grew by 27894 or 1.44 times to
90733, Master Cards number doubled to 11817.
According to the CBA information, the number of cash machine rose by
64 to 180.
Besides, banks opened 345 new POS-terminals bringing their number to
1326 and imprinters to 83. The number of serving centers made 315 by
late 2006 against 250 earlier that year.
The Central bank also says total number of deals with using plastic
cards made 3029569 and cost138245 million in 2006. ($1 - AMD 354.99).
M.V.-0---