Payment methods in Armenia

The market

Armenia is a card market with a strong local wallet and settles in drams: Visa and Mastercard are the cards of domestic payers, of the diaspora and of tourists; ArCa, the domestic scheme run by the Armenian Card company, issues the cards of the local banks; and Idram is the wallet used for utilities, transport and online shopping. Card payments settle at T+1 through the acquiring bank, with chargebacks under the scheme rules. Account-to-account transfers exist but are not in the catalogue yet. The Central Bank of Armenia licenses payment and settlement organisations and oversees the acquiring banks.

How Tranzify clients launch

Armenia is in the catalogue on request, and no provider is listed for it yet. A client brings the Armenian acquiring bank or payment organisation it has a contract with, and the connector is built into the catalogue on that request; the client keeps the contract and the licence, Tranzify supplies the software and the integration. Once the connector is there, the usual mechanics apply: routing by BIN and scheme sends ArCa cards to the route that takes them and Visa and Mastercard to the acquirer, Idram opens as a wallet flow, a decline cascades to a second acquirer when the client has one, every payment is journaled for five years, and the final status is delivered by webhook.

ArCa and Idram

ArCa cards are accepted by every Armenian acquirer and settle at T+1 like the international schemes; a client shows them next to Visa and Mastercard and lets the BIN choose the route, so the payer sees one card form whatever the scheme. Idram is a wallet with its own confirmation in the app: the checkout shows the wallet’s button, the payer confirms, and the provider reports the result within seconds; in the catalogue it carries deposits and refunds.