The nationwide payment network, Shaparak, processed 3.37 billion transactions worth 5,605 trillion rials ($21.47 billion) during the Iranian month to July 22 – up 2.04% in volume and 1.42% in value compared to the earlier month.
According to a report released by Shaparak website, a year-on-year comparison indicates 7.82% growth in the value and 17.6% higher in volume of transactions compared to last year.
The growth, however, was considerably smaller than the same period last year when the network registered 96.49% annual growth in value and 22.6% increase in volume.
Factoring out inflation, the report presented data in real value terms to help provide timely and authentic information to monetary policy and decision makers.
Accordingly, the real value of transactions dropped 24.95% on the same period last year. Compared to the previous month and after deducting inflation the value of transactions was down 2.05%.
Shaparak presents data on the popularity and usage of three main receiving tools, namely the internet, cellphones and point-of-sale terminals that are used mostly in retail outlets.
POS terminals are still the most widely used payment tools in Iran. The number of active POS devices reached 9.6 million by July 22, up 1.44%.
There were 1.62 million active online gateways and 1.45 million mobile gateways by the end of the fourth month of the calendar year.
Based on the report, the total value of payment transactions made via online gateways declined compared to the same period last year. Online gateways processed 207 million transactions worth 638 trillion rials ($2.44b) during the month, which accounted for 6.15% of total number of transactions and 11.39% of their collective value.
The share of online transactions during the same period last year was 6.06% in volume and 21.93% in value.
Accordingly, more than 3.05 billion transactions were made using POS terminals across Iran during the month to July 22 worth 4,955 trillion rials ($18.98 billion).
The report said in terms of the purpose of transactions, purchasing goods and paying for services topped the list with 88.01% of the total transactions.
Transactions for buying cellphone recharges and checking account balance respectively accounted for 7.54% and 4.45% of the total.
Shaparak said it registered more than 273 million failed transactions during the period, up 2.08% year-on-year.
User errors were the reason for 87.77% of failed transactions. Card issuer (banks) errors accounted for 10.62% of the failed transactions. Shaparak’s own inaccuracies caused 0.2% of the failed transactions.
Role of PSPs
The report also took stock of the performance of payment service providers. Beh Pardakht Mellat, Bank Mellat-affiliated PSP firm, held the lion's share both in volume and value of the transactions, accounting for 20.20% and 19.93%, respectively.
Saman Electronic Payment, a Bank Saman-affiliate, was next at 20.17%. Beh Pardakht Mellat accounted for 20.59% of all transactions conducted by POS terminals. Saman Electronic Payment ranked first in terms of volume of mobile transactions, with 31.77%.
Parsian E-Commerce Company was at the top the volume of transactions via online payment gateways accounting for 34.06% of the total.
Saman Electronic Payment and Asan Pardakht Persian recorded the lowest number of failed transactions in the month.
