Data released by Shaparak, the company in charge of supervising the domestic e-payment network, show that the network processed 4.26 billion retail transactions in the third fiscal month ending June 21.
It processed e-payments worth 9,787 trillion rials ($21.8 billion) – up 15% in volume and 34.9% in value compared with the same period of last year, the company said on its website.
In terms of volume, transactions were 2.52% higher in the third fiscal month when 4.16 billion transactions worth 9,672 trillion rials ($21.6 billion) were reported. The value was up 1.19% against the previous month.
The number of devices for processing payments was up 1.6% from the previous month, reaching 11.02 million.
However, POS terminals recorded a growth of 1.79% to more than 10 million. Total online payment gateways dipped by 0.02% to 835,000, and mobile payments were almost unchanged at 122,144.
As is the norm, POS devices topped other tools with the biggest market share of 91.31%, which were followed by online payment gateways at 7.58% and mobile instruments 1.11%.
Processing more than 3.9 billion transactions worth 8,169 trillion rials ($18.8 billion), POS devices accounted for 92.36% of the total transactions.
Based on the report, there were 1,783 devices per 10,000 adults (above 18 years) and POS terminals topped the list with 1,628 per 10,000 adults. Mobile instruments had the lowest penetration rate with 19.76 devices for every 10,000 adults.
Bank Cards
The domestic e-payment network data also indicate that more than 144.13 million bank cards were used at least once during the third fiscal month.
The number was down 1.18% on the month before when it was 145.8 million. Debit cards topped the list, accounting for 94.6% (136.3 million) of the total active cards.
More than 20.98% of the debit cards were issued by Bank Melli followed by Bank Sepah with 11.29%, Bank Mellat with 11% and Bank Saderat Iran with 10.37%.
The number of credit cards grew by 8%. According to Shaparak, 573,000 credit cards were used at least once in the month.
Bank Melli was the issuer of 91% of the credit cards, followed by Saman Bank 1.49% and Tejarat Bank 1.04%.
The company said 7.1 million gift cards were used at least once during the month under review. More than 15.74% of such cards were issued by Bank Melli Iran. Bank Mellat was next with 11% and Parsian Bank 9.07%.
*** New Model
The new fee system for payment transactions came into effect on June 25. Henceforth, retailers and shop-owners who use POS terminals for e-payments will have to pay a portion as service cost.
In a press release posted on its website, CBI said despite the fact that retailers will pay a fee for accepting card payments, the banking system still cover a significant portion of the cost for e-payments.
It published a list of businesses exempted from paying fees until further notice, including bakeries, groceries, supermarkets, drugstores, hospitals, gas stations, handicraft shops, taxi services, schools, charities, bookstores, newsstands and utilities like electricity, water and natural gas.
CBI unveiled a long-awaited fee model for transactions, based on which retailers and shops will be charged for transactions via POS terminals.
Payments for services such as issuing bank cards, guarantee letters, cash transfers, interest-free loans and LCs are the main sources of income for banks. However, customers will not pay a fee for making transactions in the Shaparak network, the domestic e-payment network.
Banks receiving and making payments via cards bear the bulk of payment 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 is used. This was on top of the amount banks pay as rent and support fees for each POS device to payment service providers.
Unlike the past, the new system requires shops where POS terminals are used to pay a fee for each transaction.
In the new model, three parties bear the cost, namely the merchant, issuing bank and the acquiring bank, with banks accounting for the biggest share of the costs.
Acquiring banks used to pay 500 to 2,500 rials for each transaction, whereas in the new system, acquiring banks will pay a 0.0005-rial fee for each transaction.
Research by CBI shows that the implementation of the new model should reduce bank costs by 48% that will instead be paid by retailers.
Based on the new formula, merchants pay a fixed fee of 1,200 rials for transactions below 6 million rials and 0.0002 (two-thousandths) of the transaction amount up to a cap of 40,000 rials for transactions above 6 million rials.
The current transaction ceiling is 1 billion rials. Therefore, under the new plan, a merchant will have to pay a maximum fee of 40,000 rials for a 1-billion-rial transaction while (debit card) issuing banks will pay a fixed amount of 240 rials for each transaction.
