The total number of active debit cards reached 104.93 million up until the Iranian calendar month (Feb. 20) of the fiscal year that ends next week.
Shaparak, the company in charge of supervising Iran's electronic payment network, published its monthly data about performance of the network, according to which debit cards accounted for 95% of total active cards during the period.
As per the report, 158,600 credit cards were used only once during the one-month to Feb.19, constituting 0.15% of total active bank cards. However, the number of active credit cards registered an 11.4% increase compared to the month before.
The number is expected to increase in the coming months as the government plans to introduce credit cards to support businesses impacted by the coronavirus spread.
The report also details issuer banks' share of the market. More than 22% of debit cards were issued by state-owned Bank Melli Iran. Bank Saderat Iran and Bank Mellat ranked after with 11.5% and 11.3% with at least one transaction during the period.
Bank Mellat, however, was the leading issuer of credit cards up until February 21 with 40% share. Post Bank Iran, Bank Saderat Iran and Bank Sepah were next.
Private lenders have shown no interest in issuing credit cards. The 18% interest on credit seems, rather strangely, unpalatable to private lenders.
A total of 2.31 billion transactions worth 3,242.3 trillion rials ($21.2 billion as per current exchange rates) were processed by Shaparak during the month to Feb 19. The transactions were 4.69% higher in volume and 15.23% up in value on a monthly basis.
Volume and value of transactions increased 17.25% and 35.94%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.
