A review of bank debit card transactions shows that more than 228.4 million cards are either inactive and have had no transaction for long.
Citing data from the Central Bank of Iran, IRNA said the total number of cards issued by banks and credit institutions reached 333.4 million by mid-February and 68% cards remained without use.
Debit cards constitute the majority of bank cards in Iran with gift cards and credit cards having a meager share.
Debit cards were close to 226 million by the mentioned period, more than 182 million of which owned by residents of Tehran Province. Lenders issued 56.5 million gift cards and more than 3.1 million credit cards.
During the calendar month to February 19 only 104.9 million cards had transactions, which was 1.8% higher than the figure for the month earlier.
One reason behind the mounting number of unused cards could be linked to administrative bodies and employers wanting their staff to open bank accounts to pay or get paid.
For example, a university student who has a part time job can be asked to open two separate accounts, one for paying tuition and the other for receiving wages. The student may still hold the cards after graduation or leaving the job.
IRNA, the state news agency, linked the increasing number of bank cards to the expansion of electronic banking in recent years thanks to the increase in number of ATMs and POS terminals plus the expansion in e-banking platforms.
As per a report by Iran’s electronic payment settlement network, known as Shaparak, the number of electronic payment platforms reached 10.8 million when the last fiscal year ended on March 19.
Processing more than 2.07 billion transactions with total value of 2,829.46 trillion rials ($17.9 billion), POS devices accounted for 90.9% of the total transactions.
Second on the list were online gateways accounting for 5.05% of the total with more than 115.07 million transactions. This was followed by mobile instruments at 3.99%. Iran’s population is 83 million.
