Shaparak, the Central Bank of Iran-affiliated supervisory body in charge of the payment settlement network, released its report for the second month of the current fiscal to May 20 showing a pattern of growth in e-transactions.
More than 3.02 billion transactions worth 4,801.3 trillion rials ($20 billion) were processed in the month, the company’s website reported. Transactions rose 7.2% and 16.9% in volume and value compared to the previous month when almost 2.8 billion transactions worth 4,106.1 trillion rials ($17.01 billion) were processed.
On a year-on-year basis, the volume and value of transactions grew by 15.92% and 20.71%, respectively.
The number of online payment gateways grew by 1.78% during the month compared to the previous month. They had a market share of 12.64% that was slightly higher than the month before.
Mobile gateways for receiving payments registered 0.7% growth in the month. Point-of-sale devices in shops grew by a meager 0.07% in number on a monthly basis but still held a dominating market share of 75.86%.
As per the report, 9.66 million POS terminals were active during the month. Tehran had the highest number of payment receiving instruments. In the period more than 195 million POS devices were active in the capital followed by Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan provinces with 741,000 and 668,000 devices, respectively.
On the whole, instruments for receiving payments registered a 0.32% rise compared to the first month of the current fiscal year.
The report said in terms of numbers, transactions for purchasing goods and services had the biggest share at 87.66% while transactions for paying utility bills along with purchasing phone recharges and transactions for checking account balance had a respective share of 7.97% and 4.38%.
In terms of value, transactions for buying goods and services had a 98.18% share while those for paying bills and buying phone recharges had a 1.82% share.
According to Shaparak, more than 248.2 million transactions failed during the month under the review.
In analyzing faulty transactions, the company said the total number of unsuccessful transactions increased by 8.57% in the period compared to the month before.
User errors accounted for a majority of rejections followed by errors by issuer banks.
The report said Saman Electronic Payment Company topped the list of payment service providers in terms of volume and value.
SEP, affiliated with Saman Bank, processed 20.09% of the transactions. In value terms, the company had a 19.38% share of the total payments via digital tools.
Beh Pardakht Mellat and Parsian e-Commerce Company, affiliated to Parsian Bank, came in second and third with 19.5% and 19.01%, respectively.
