ArmInfo. In the Armenian plastic card market, the launch of a cash-back program in 2026 has boosted the market penetration of ArCa cards to 24–25% by June, as stated Vardan Khachatryan, Chairman of the Board and Executive Director of Armenian Card, during a press conference.
Khachatryan specified that 290,000 active ArCa cards were issued in the first five months of the year, with an additional 24,000 issued in June. As a result, the total number of local cards reached nearly one million by June, of which 946,000 are eligible for the cash-back program. During this period, 414,000 cardholders have already received cash-back rewards.
Regarding the total value of payouts, he noted that 2.1 billion AMD has been returned in the first half of the year, against a target of 7 billion AMD projected for all of 2026 (contributed equally by the government and Armenian Card, at 3.5 billion AMD each).
Hovhannes Khachatryan, Chairman of the Armenian Card Board, stated: "We commend the results of the cashback on ArCa cards, Regarding the continuation of this program next year, I would note that depending on budget funding, certain details or the size of the cash-back may be revised. However, we are prepared to continue this program in its proposed format with the government in 2027." Vardan Khachatryan, Executive Director of Armenian Card, noted: " "With the introduction of cash-backs, many holders have inquired about when ArCa cards will be compatible with Google Pay and Apple Pay. I can announce that by the end of 2026 or early 2027, it will be possible to link ArCa cards to Google Pay, while integration with Apple Pay is expected in the second half of 2027." Khachatryan noted that specific steps are being taken to strengthen the position of ArCa cards and the sovereignty of the Armenian payment system: the introduction of the ArCa Pay and ArCa QR systems in 2024-2025, preparations for issuing co-badged ArCa cards in collaboration with international payment brands, accelerated work on ArCa tokenization in Google Pay and Apple Pay services, and the replacement of digital chips on local cards has been initiated. In the context of ArCa Pay, active technical development is underway with payment systems in France and India, as well as with the Bank of Georgia. Remittances to India and Georgia are expected to become a reality later this year. Negotiations are also ongoing with relevant systems in the UAE, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan.
Khachatryan underscored the key strategic goal: "We are striving to reach agreements not only regarding the integration of ArCa Pay but also the global reach of ArCa card payments. We are making efforts to ensure that by 2027, it will be possible to use ArCa cards for transactions in Georgia, thereby eliminating the need to rely on international Visa or Mastercard cards for transactions in that direction." Recall, a 2% cashback mechanism was introduced for all ArCa cards in Armenia on January 1, 2026. At the same time, cashback on local cards for pensioners and beneficiaries was increased from the previous 12% to 22% (20% + general 2%). It is worth noting that, according to the Central Bank of Armenia, in Q1 2026, the number of ArCa cards increased from 817,600 to 927,300, with an increase in their market penetration over this period from 16.3% to 17.6%. The volume of transactions using ArCa cards, after recovering from the recession to double-digit growth of 10% in 2025 - to 854.7 billion drams (with a market penetration of over 13%), accelerated in the first quarter of 2026. annual growth rates of up to 12.2%.
