ArmInfo. In the Armenian plastic card market, non-cash transactions are increasingly becoming the dominant payment method. By April 2026, their share in the total volume of transactions reached 62%, up from 56% a year earlier. In absolute terms, this amounted to 1.2 trillion drams ($3.1 billion) for the first quarter of 2026, according to data from the Central Bank of Armenia.
This result was achieved even as the annual growth rate of non-cash card payments returned to a natural range following the surge seen in 2022, which was triggered by the legislative restrictions on cash transactions introduced on July 1 of that year. Impressive growth rates in non-cash transactions were recorded in 2023 (77%), after which the rate shifted toward a more natural double-digit growth path, rising by 11% in 2024 and accelerating to 17% in 2025. This trend continued into 2026, with the annual growth rate of non-cash transactions accelerating to 23% in the first quarter. Parallel to this, the share of cash transactions in the total volume of plastic card operations has steadily declined: from 66% in 2021 to 59% in 2022, losing its dominance in 2023 by dropping to 49%, and further decreasing to 47% in 2024 and 43% in 2025.
It is worth noting that in the first quarter of 2026, the share of non-cash transactions conducted via virtual vPOS terminals remained at 59% (the same level reached a year prior), exceeding 674.8 billion drams ($1.8 billion). The annual growth of these transactions accelerated from 4% to a double-digit 22%. Within the total volume of plastic card transactions, the share of vPOS operations also continues to grow, exceeding 36% by April 2026 (compared to 33% during the same period in 2025).
Supported by the dynamics of non-cash transactions, the total volume of plastic card transactions also showed double-digit annual growth of 12%, totaling 1.9 trillion drams ($4.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2026 (including transactions made abroad using cards issued by Armenian banks). Notably, the share of foreign transactions made with cards issued by Armenian banks decreased to 12%, down from 14% in the first quarter of 2025.
International payment cards registered the highest growth rates in transaction volumes. Notably, local card systems also demonstrated a significant turnaround, recovering from a previous downturn to achieve double-digit growth. Visa cards retained the lead in transaction volume, with over 1.1 trillion drams ($3 billion) in Q1 2026, accelerating year-on-year growth from 7.3% to 13.4%. Mastercard cards secured second place, with 410.6 billion drams ($1.1 billion), returning to 7.3% growth from a 5.6% decline. ArCa domestic cards ranked third with 204.3 billion drams ($541.6 million), up 12.2% year-on-year from a 4.1% decline. Other international cards (AmEx, Diners Club, MIR, and UPI) ranked fourth with 38.3 billion drams ($101.6 million), up 11.4% from a 37.2% decline. Moreover, the latter managed to achieve an upward trend thanks to the continued activity of American Express (AmEx) cards issued by Acba Bank.
In terms of share of the total volume of plastic transactions, Visa cards hold the lead - 63.7% compared to 62.8% in Q1 2025), Mastercard is in second place - 22.8% (compared to 23.7% in Q1 2025), ArCa is in third place - 11.3% (the same as a year ago), and the remaining 2.2% (the same as a year ago) are transactions using other foreign cards. Moreover, the share of transactions using MIR cards decreased over 2023-2025 from 74% to 14%, continuing to move downwards in Q1 2026 to 9.4%. In the total volume of plastic transactions, the share of MIR cards decreased from 2.2% in 2023 to 0.3% in 2025, becoming even lower in Q1 2026 - 0.2%. The decline in MIR card transactions was due to the inclusion of NSPK MIR on the sanctions list in February 2024 and the subsequent suspension of the linkage between the national card systems of Armenia and Russia—ArCa and MIR—in March. As a result, Armenian banks stopped servicing MIR cards in April 2024. Only VTB Bank (Armenia), which has been issuing these cards since July 2022 and had issued nearly 205,000 by April 2026, continued to service them through its ATM and POS network. Visa also retains the lead in the total number of bank cards issued, accounting for 53.2%, followed by Mastercard (22.2%) and ArCa (17.6%). Other foreign cards (AmEx, Diners Club, MIR, and UPI) account for the remaining 7%. In terms of annual growth, international Visa cards demonstrated the highest growth rate in the reporting year (22%) and Mastercard cards (20%), while local ArCa cards grew by 14%. A slightly lower 13% growth was recorded for other international cards (AmEx, Diners Club, MIR, UPI), with the upward trend sustained due to continued strong AmEx card replenishment activity.
It is worth noting that the Armenian Card national payment system (NPS) launched the ArCaPay (since November 2024) and ArCaQR (since October 2025) systems to strengthen the position of local cards and provide technological support. The government, for its part, decided to increase consumer interest in ArCa cards by introducing a 2% cashback on all cards starting in January 2026 and increasing cashback for pensioners and those receiving benefits from the previous 12% to the current 22% (including the general 2%). In addition, as part of Armenian Card's agreement with international payment systems Mastercard and UPI, co-branded ArCa cards are planned for the second half of 2026, with the option to service them internationally. To this end, work is being accelerated to tokenize ArCa in Apple Pay and Google Pay services.
Recall, all 17 banks currently operating in Armenia are active participants in the plastic card market. This includes the relatively new entrant, Fast Bank, which simultaneously issues local ArCa cards alongside international Visa and Mastercard products. ( the AMD/USD official exchange rate as of March 31, 2026, was 377.16 AMD/USD.)
