Performance of the domestic payment network indicates 9% growth in the number of unused or infrequently used POS terminals in the month to August 22.
POS terminals are popular digital payment tools in Iran. However, the last monthly report published by Shaparak company shows that not all devices are regularly used by retailers. As per the report, almost 10.47% of the total POS devices processed less than 60 transactions in two months.
The total number of less-used POS terminals grew by 9.7% during the period compared to the month before. The e-network company said 8.1 million POS terminals were used across the country in the month.
According to the report, POS devices topped the list of instruments with the biggest market share at 93.28%. This was followed by online payment gateways at 5.26% and mobile instruments 1.46%.
Processing more than 3.43 billion transactions worth 5,740 trillion rials ($19.06 billion), POS devices accounted for 92.43% of the total volume of transactions.
There were 1,420.14 instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old) and POS terminals topped the list with 1,324.68 instruments per 10,000 adults.
Unlike other countries, retailers in Iran do not pay the cost of purchasing and maintaining POS terminal devices. Banks receiving and making payments pay the bulk of the fees because when a payment is made with a bank card, the bank receiving the payment has to pay a fee to the bank whose card has been used.
This is over and above the amount banks pay as rent and support fees for each POS device to PSPs. Besides, a portion of the fee, 500 rials per transaction, goes to companies in charge of maintaining the payment network.
The decision (not to pay by retailers) was made years ago, when the CBI started promoting debit cards, and it has become a long pending e-payment issue.
According to available data, acquiring banks paid 98 rials per every 100,000 rials of transactions, during the said month.
Apart from its negative impact on bank costs, not charging retailers is seen as the key influencing factor behind the growth in the number of unused POS devices.
Shaparak said under the current practice, retailers, PSPs and banks are little concerned about non-functionality of the devices, merely trying to increase the number of devices linked to their bank accounts.
Sadad Electronic Payment Company, affiliated to Bank Melli Iran, accounted for the least number of lesser-used POS devices accounting for 5.5% of the company's total installed devices.
Sepehr Electronic Payment and Pasargad Electronic Payment came next with 6.39% and 71.13%, respectively.
Fanava Card recorded the weakest performance, compared to 11 other PSPs as 21% of its devices were rarely used in the two months to August 22.
Parsian Electronic Commerce Company and Pardakht Novin Arian ranked after with 17.81% and 13.49%, respectively.
