Armenia is a semi-presidential republic with a unicameral parliament, the National Assembly (Azgayin Zhoghov).
Armenia is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), and an observer of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC).
In recent years, Armenia has made the switch into being a market economy, although political instability and regional tensions have threatened to derail progress in reform and modernisation efforts.
The regional security situation deteriorated during 2014 when skirmishing broke out over Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and neighbouring Azerbaijan, which is allied with Turkey and the US. Armenia occupied the disputed enclave, internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991.
The 2018 Armenian revolution saw a series of anti-government protests against Serzh Sargsyan’s third consecutive term as president, and later against the government in general. In March 2018, Armen Sarksyan was elected as the new president, who undertook a programme of constitutional reform. In September 2020, a war broke out due to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, with Armenian and Azerbaijanian forces clashing. A November 2020 ceasefire agreement ended the six-week war.
In contrast with regional neighbours like Georgia and Moldova, Armenia has focused on developing relations with Russia and the other countries of the Eurasian Economic Union rather than negotiating a free trade agreement with the EU. Armenia formally joined the Eurasian Economic Union in January 2015. In 2017 Armenia became the first EEU country to ratify an agreement on cooperation with the EU.
In line with the pattern seen in most EU countries, card payments have grown very fast and have captured an increasing proportion of total cashless payments in Armenia. From 29.2% of cashless payments in 2016, cards rose to 54.3% in 2020, a CAGR of 53.82%.
In line with growing card usage, mobile payments and digital banking are gaining traction - in 2021, the active mobile subscriber penetration in Armenia amounted to 117.4% of the population, with 10% of the population having some form of mobile money account. A rapidly expanding POS infrastructure is also helping to drive acceptance of cards and digital payments across Armenia.
STATISTICAL KEY FIGURES FOR 2021 PROVIDED IN THIS PROFILE:
NEW in 2023:
- The full impact of COVID-19 on digital payments, card payments, e-commerce and m-commerce by market.
- Real-time payments infrastructure and growth statistics by market.
- Open Banking infrastructure, API roll-out, key players and key initiatives by market.
- Contactless and mobile payments statistics by market.
- Cryptocurrency, stablecoin and CBDC initiatives by market.
- Full update on bank channel digitisation by market.
- Forecasting column added for all the major tables.
- Reader-friendly design with enhanced data visualisation.
- Industry developments and bank deployments of eID, biometrics and AI.
- The integration of digital challengers and neobanks into the banking infrastructure.
Updates For 2022-23:
- Updated - Bank M&As, restructuring and market positioning. Customer number KPIs and adoption of digital channel KPIs.
- Updated - Mobile banking apps and digital wallet initiatives.
- Updated - PSPs by individual country.
- Updated - Real-time payments uptake and QR code payments rollout.
- Updated - Card fraud in Europe and by individual country.
- Updated - Non-bank cards and co-brands.
- Highlighting the new trends in the payment industry by individual country:
- Contactless, mobile NFC, QR code, mPOS, SoftPOS services
- Display cards, contactless ATMs, biometric authentication
- Digital wallets, in-app payments, mobile in-store payments
- Instant payments
- eID initiatives
- Cryptocurrency and CBCD initiatives
- Updated: tables with card business data 2017-2021; growth rates: Y-o-Y, CAGR + Forecasting column
- Population, Cards per Capita, Card Value per Capita
- Debit Cards, Credit/Delayed Debit Cards, Total Cards
- Card payments by number and by value, ATV per card, payments per card/year
- ATMs, POS terminals, ATMs/POS terminals per 1 million capita
- ATM withdrawals by number/by value, ATV per withdrawal, TXs per ATM/month
- POS payments by number/by value, ATV per POS payment, TXs per POS/month
- Internet Use, e-payment mix, B2C e-Commerce by value and growth rate
- Issued Card brands by individual major issuer bank
- Accepted card brands by individual major acquirer
- Drill down into the debit card use and credit cards use details
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Digital product provided in PDF format. You will receive a download link to a zip file containing your files after checkout.
Methodology
The publisher's research is collated over a year from Primary sources across all European and Eurasian markets. They use the ECB, BIS as well as annual reports from the European banks and listed companies, consulting platforms and major accounting firms along with a combined 100 years of experience in the payments industry analysing and commenting on the data.
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