ArmInfo.The Central Bank of Armenia has set maximum commission fee limits for cashless payments made through physical POS terminals: 0.5% for ArCa cards and 0.9% for Visa and MC cards, as noted in a statement issued by the Central Bank of Armenia, which specified that these limits apply to businesses with an annual turnover of up to 150 million drams.
The Central Bank further explains that these maximum fees will be enforced from March 1 of each year until the end of February of the following year. For small businesses, the maximum commission limit for transactions through physical POS terminals has been set at 0.2%.
The Board of the Central Bank of Armenia adopted this decision on February 9, 2026, thereby establishing maximum commission limits for non-cash bank card payments through physical POS terminals. The Central Bank's statement explains: "Following the adoption of the Law "On Non-cash Transactions," alongside a significant increase in the volume of non-cash payments in the financial system and in the context of increased market competition, commission fees for card payments have decreased over time for certain groups of businesses. However, as analysis shows, for certain groups of business entities, particularly those with low turnover, the increase in non-cash payments has not led to a significant reduction in commission fees. Accordingly, in addition to taking into account Clause 9 of Article 4 of the Law "On Non-cash Transactions," it became necessary to create more favorable conditions, particularly for servicing small businesses." The relevant decision and details can be found at the following link: https://www.cba.am/hy/Board-decisions/9505/ Thus, the Central Bank, attaching great importance to the availability of payment infrastructure for small businesses and retailers, continues to take steps to ensure a competitive, transparent, and inclusive payment environment in Armenia.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank Board Decision contains a completely unclear provision, according to which fixed maximum commission fees are set for business entities whose monthly turnover through POS terminals does not exceed 50,000 drams, depending on their location: - In Yerevan - up to 4,600 drams; - In regional cities - up to 3,000 drams; - In rural areas - up to 1,000 drams. According to ArmInfo analysts, this provision in no way aligns with the principles of a "competitive, transparent, and inclusive" payment environment, as it effectively increases the commission burden to 8- 9% of turnover. In other words, this decision is simply absurd, and contrary to its stated goals, it rather encourages small entities to go underground, where "having gotten away with high commissions," they will continue to seek to conceal their actual turnover and evade taxes.
Recall, Central Bank Chairman Martin Galstyan recently noted during a press conference that acquiring fees in Armenia are not significantly different from international practices: "However, in our case, prioritizing the promotion of cashless payments, the Central Bank has limited these fees. As a result, banks' losses will amount to approximately 2 billion drams per year."
According to Issue #32 of the analytical review "Armenian Banks in the Card Business," prepared by the ArmInfo Investment Company, by October 1, 2025, there will be over 4.7 million cards in Armenia (with an annual growth rate of 9.1%), with 770,300 being ArCa cards, over 2.5 million- Visa cards, 1.1 million- Mastercard cards, 148,200- AmEx cards, and 206,100 - other foreign cards (primarily MIR cards, and a small number of recently launched UPI cards). The total volume of plastic transactions for the first nine months of 2025 exceeds 5.5 trillion drams (including transactions abroad), with non-cash transactions already dominating the structure, accounting for 57%, or 3.2 trillion drams. Moreover, the share of online transactions among non-cash transactions is almost 48%, and including transactions abroad, it exceeds 70%.
