Armenian Card: arca.am application to stop operating from Apr 15,  2024

ArmInfo.The Armenian Card CJSC has announced its plans to stop operating the arca.am  application. 

The company's announcement reads: 

"Dear customers,

"We would like to thank all of you for using our application.

"Our application entered the market in the beginning of April 2019 as  the next stage of the development of the previously existing "Virtual  Card" payment system, and at that time it was a solution expected and  demanded by the market, which provided a new application experience  and a range of services in the market, which was available to a small  number of participants at that time.

"In essence, the arca.am application has become a prototype and an  incentive for banks to process and develop their own applications,  and thus we can consider our mission successful. 

"At the moment, there are many solutions on the market that  essentially cover, in some cases even exceed the range of services  available in our application.

"Company "Armenian Card", being the operator of the ArCa national  payment system, as well as a unified processing center for the  majority of banks in Armenia, has decided to focus on providing  technological solutions to financial organizations which are the  direct beneficiaries of its services.

"Accordingly, we inform you that from April 15, 2024, operations with  the arca.am application will be stopped. 

"Until then, if it is necessary, you can save your payment data by  exporting them from the corresponding sections of the WEB version of  arca.am cabinet, as well as to write out the data of periodic  payments / transfers, beneficiaries in order to register them on  other platforms later. 

"We have big plans for the future, soon we will introduce new, modern  products for our partner banks continuing to develop the field of  payments and transfers in Armenia. We will always be with you when  you make a payment or transfer in a physical or virtual environment  by card, phone, smart watch and other means.

"Sincerely,

"A constant and invisible companion to your payments,

Armenian Card"

In a recent interview with ArmInfo, director of Armenian Card CJSC  Ishkhan Mkhitaryan said that the company is now working on  tokenization of ArCa cards. Thanks to this project, owners of  smartphones with the Android operating system will have the  opportunity to use their phone to pay for goods and services using  local ArCa cards. "This functionality will be used in mobile  applications of banks. We are in the final stages of developing this  project and will transfer technological solutions to banks over the  coming months," he said.

In addition, the company will launch the ArCaPay system in April this  year. According to Mkhitaryan, this is a system of transfers and  payments through simple identifiers using mobile applications of  banks. "That is, in order to make a transfer from one account to  another between two banks, it will be enough to enter only the  recipient's phone number. There will be no need to know his account  number, first and last name, or bank details that need to be filled  out today to transfer funds," he explained.

This is the so-called fast/instant payment system. At the first  stage, it will work to carry out transfers between individuals, in  the future these could be B2B transfers, there could be transfers  from the state to individuals and vice versa, as well as payment for  goods and services in the physical and virtual environment.