Shaparak, the Central Bank of Iran-affiliated supervisory body in charge of payment settlements, has released its latest report for the month to March 20. It shows another upsurge in growth.
According to the report published on Shaparak website, more than 2,219 million transactions worth 2,939 trillion rials ($21.2 billion) were processed in the period. Transactions respectively grew by 12.50% and 23.23% in volume and value compared to the previous month when 1,972 million transactions worth 2,385 trillion rials ($15.4 billion) were reported.
On a year-on-year basis, the volume and value of transactions grew by 26.49% and 53.68% as more than 1,753 million transactions worth 1,912 trillion rials ($13.8 billion) were processed.
The report attributes the surge in transactions partially to galloping inflation. As for the contribution of other factors, Shaparak referred to the increasing number of receiving instruments and debit cards, plus the growing willingness to use a variety of payment tools instead of cash.
Factoring the inflation in statistics, the report presents data in real value terms to provide more robust information for decision-makers.
Accordingly, the real value of transactions shot up 18.58% compared to a month earlier.
Shaparak offers services via Internet, cell phone and point of sale devices. Based on the report, the number of Internet receiving instruments fell 2.08% during the month to March 20 compared to the earlier month.
Mobile receiving instruments registered 1.84% growth in the same month. Likewise, point of sale devices in shops grew 0.95% on a monthly basis.
On the whole, the number of receiving instruments registered 0.73% increase compared to a month earlier.
Higher number of POS devices is attributed mainly to their popularity compared to its peers and its capability to be used without the need for supplementary devices such as PC or cellphone, which may not always be accessible.
The report indicates that in terms of service offered by Shaparak, transactions for purchases and services held the lion’s share of the total transactions at 82.90%. Transactions processed for buying cell phone recharges and checking account balance respectively accounted for 11.39% and 5.72% of the total Shaparak transactions.
Tehran Province topped the list of provinces with the highest number receiving instruments. During the said period more than 1.52 million POS devices were in use in the capital, followed by Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan provinces with 559,113 and 521,247 devices respectively.
The lowest number of POS devices was in Ilam Province -- 53,221.
About 280,000 mobile payment instruments and 240,000 Internet payment receiving instruments were active in Tehran in the same month to constitute the biggest share in Iran. Isfahan and Khorasan Razavi came in second and third respectively.
According to Shaparak, more than 2.21 billion transactions (91.69%) were conducted successfully during the month that ended on March 20.
