Shaparak, the domestic electronic payment network, handled 18.55 billion transactions in the Iranian month of Azar (Nov. 22-Dec.21) worth 2,000 trillion rials ($17 billion).
According to a monthly report published on Shaparak website, the figure indicates 3.38% growth in volume and 9.63% decline in value compared with a month earlier. Compared with the same month in the previous year, the transactions rose 28.5% and 32.9% in volume and value, respectively.
The value of transactions declined for the second month in a row, indicating the impact of Central Bank of Iran’s new restrictions on the permitted value of daily purchases via Point-of-Sale devices, enforced as a measure to control capital flight and curb money laundering.
Total amount of liquidity transferred via electronic payment systems fell 213 trillion rials ($1.8 billion) in Azar and 403 trillion rials ($3.4 billion) a month earlier in Aban, which IRNA says showed the CBI policy delivered.
CBI sent a directive in December telling banks and credit institutions to abide by the restrictions the regulator set on the ceiling of transactions. The bylaw initially allowed a maximum 500 million rials ($4,310) for each transaction that was later increased up to 1 billion rials ($8,620) daily.
Increase in the value of transactions on an annual basis is partially ascribed to the rising inflation, besides other factors such as the increase in the number of receiving instruments and the number of debit card holders as well as the people’s willingness to use electronic payment methods instead of cash.
Real Comparison
Discounting the role of inflation in the nominal data on the value of transactions, the report provides real data, making it a logical benchmark for analysis.
Data on the real performance of Shaparak indicates 8.5% decline in real value of transactions in Azar compared to the previous month and 1.96% decrease year-on-year.
A glance at the nominal and real growth figures shows the striking difference the inflation factor makes on the value of transactions.
POS devices processed 88.4% transactions, followed by mobile and Internet-based receiving instruments, processing 5.9% and 5.5% of the total transactions respectively
Receiving Instruments
In addition, Shaparak rates its performance in terms of the number and value of transactions processed by its three main receiving instruments, namely Internet, mobile and Point-of-Sale devices.
Shaparak data further shows an overall 1.94% increase in the number of the total receiving instruments in Azar compared to a month earlier.
Transactions processed by Internet witnessed the highest growth at 5.8% followed by POS (1.48%) and mobile (1.46%).
In the ninth calendar month, POS devices processed 88.4% transactions, followed by mobile and Internet-based receiving instruments, processing 5.9% and 5.5% of the total transactions respectively.
The bigger share of POS devices in processing transactions is attributed to the limitations of transactions on mobile and Internet because other supplementary devices are needed to process mobile transactions.
Higher number of POS devices and their increased availability is another factor for their widespread use.
In terms of services offered by Shaparak in Azar, the data showed that “buying goods and services” accounted for 81.9% of the number of transactions, down 0.12% compared with a month before.
During the same period, 12.4% of the transactions were processed for “payment of bills and buying cell phone recharges” while the share of “checking account balances” was 5.6%.
Also, the transactions processed for buying goods and services fell 1.75% YOY and the difference went to payment of bills and buying cell phone recharges.
Payment Service Providers
Shaparak is a supervisory body affiliated to the CBI that brings together payment service providers (PSP) and monitors Internet and mobile payment instruments. The Shaparak report also covers the performance of PSPs.
As usual, Beh Pardkht Mellat holds the lion's share of the volume and value of transactions processed in Azar, accounting for 21.03% and 24.17% of the volume and value respectively.
Additionally, Saman Electronic Payment and Iran Kish Credit Card Company accounted for 14.71% and 14.02% of the total value of the transactions, respectively.
Saman ranked second in terms of the number of transactions in the ninth month of the current Iranian fiscal (ends in March), processing 17.9% of the transactions followed by Asan Pardakht Persian which processed 15.2%.
