More than 3.23 billion transactions worth 5,822.06 trillion rials ($23.3 billion) were processed by Iran’s payment settlement network, Shaparak, in the last month of the fiscal year that ended on March 20.
Compared to the earlier month, the transactions were 9.94% higher in volume and up 14.35% in value, Shaparak reported on its website.
The upsurge was bigger on an annualized basis. The number of transaction rose 41.64% compared to the same period last year when transactions via the payment network took a drubbing amid lockdowns and mass businesses closures due to the pandemic.
Shaparak data for the same month last year show it processed 2.28 billion transactions worth 3,281.7 trillion rials ($13.12 billion) in the month ending March 19, 2020.
Increase in the number of transactions is a promising sign that businesses are gradually returning to the pre-Covid era.
Value of transactions increased 77.41% in the course of the year, which apparently was also due to high consumer price inflation. However, when adjusted for inflation data suggest increase in real value of transactions compared with the corresponding month last year.
After deducting inflation, the real value of transactions rose 19.32% compared to the same period last year.
Payment services in Iran are offered via three main instruments, namely the internet, cell phone and point-of-sale terminals. With more than 12.62 million payment instruments active in the mentioned period, the total number of instruments rose 0.38% compared to the month earlier.
The rise was mainly attributed to point-of-sale terminals, which grew 0.52% to reach 9.6 million. The number of mobile instruments rose 0.38% while internet payment gateways fell 0.41% in the month.
POS on Top
As is usually the case, POS terminals topped the list of instruments with the biggest market share at 76.05%. This was followed by online payment gateways with 12.46% and mobile instruments 11.49%.
POS devices accounted for 90.65% of the total transactions by processing 2.9 billion transactions worth 5,152.88 ($20.6 billion).
Online gateways were next accounting for 5.88% of the total and mobile instruments represented 3.47% of the total transactions.
The report indicates that in terms of the purpose of transactions, purchasing goods and paying for services had the lion’s share at 87.29%.
Transactions for buying cell phone recharges and checking account balance respectively accounted for 7.68% and 5.03% of the total.
As for the penetration rate of payment tools, the report showed that the number of instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old) was 2,078 during the month under review.
The highest penetration rate was for POS devices with 1,580 and mobile instruments at the lowest with 238 instruments per 10,000 adults. Tehran Province topped the list of provinces with the highest number of POS terminals.
There were 1.95 million active POS devices in the sprawling province, which indicates 0.38% rise compared to the earlier month.
This was followed by Khorasan Razavi with 737,257 and Isfahan with 665,505 active devices. Ilam Province had the lowest number of POS devices at 67,797.
