Iran's domestic payment transaction network, Shaparak, processed more than 3.42 billion transactions in the month to September 21, marking an 8.49% growth compared to the month before and up 17.38% compared to the same period in the last fiscal year.
According to the monthly performance report seen on Shaparak website, the value of transactions increased 32.75% y/y to 6,470 trillion rials ($23.78 billion) -- 20% higher than the previous month.
The report attributes the surge in transactions partially to galloping inflation. As for other factors, Shaparak referred to the increasing number of receiving instruments and debit cards, plus the use a variety of payment tools instead of cash.
Factoring inflation, the report presents data in real value terms to provide robust information to decision-makers.
Real value of transactions increased by 15.97% on the month before, but was 7.63% lower compared the same period last year.
Shaparak offers services via internet, cellphones and point of sale devices. POS devices remain the most favorite payment tool, the report said. More than 9.5 million active POS terminals used for making transactions, accounting for nearly 75% of the total payment gateways.
POS terminals collectively processed 3 billion plus transactions in the month under the review worth 5,563 trillion rials ($20.4 billion).
The number of online payment gateways declined 5% during the month, to 1.559 million. The network processed 239 million transactions in the period with a total value of 895 trillion rials ($3.29 billion).
Paying for goods and services was the purpose of the majority of transactions (88.3%). About 7.5% of transactions were used for paying bills and remaining 4.2% for checking account balance.
As for the penetration rate of payment tools the report said there were 2,022 instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old) during the month.
POS terminals topped the list with 1,536 instruments per 10,000 adults. Likewise, mobile gateways had the lowest penetration with 233.3 instruments for every 10,000 adults.
Tehran Province ranked first with the highest number of POS terminals with more than 1.881 million active POS devices, down 3.12% in one month.
It was followed by Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan provinces, with 710,491 and 529,319 active devices, respectively.
As usual, the lowest number of POS devices was in Ilam Province with 64,690 devices.
New Plans
The payment regulator has suspended services to three million POS terminals and online payment gateways after owners failed to abide by tax rules required by the Iranian National Tax Administration.
The measure was in the framework of the law to tax transactions via POS terminals and payment gateways, which came into effect in mid-January.
As such, businesses wanting to apply for POS or other payment gateways have to first file their tax returns and those who already own the gadgets are automatically liable to pay tax.
The measures are also designed to curb illegal activities using rented payment gateways. The central bank is hopeful that the measures will help the regulator in controlling money laundering and online betting because owners of the gateways are accountable and must pay tax.
In another update the CBI announced that it has plans for promoting contactless payment are making progress. In February, the CBI launched a contactless payment mechanism based on EMV standard.
Recently it was announced that more than 20,000 contactless payment terminals are installed across the country. With the help of a payment service company almost 764,000 POS terminals used in stores were equipped with the NFC reader.
The CBI says it expects cardless payment to become widespread when more banks and payment companies start offering the service.
The central bank has also developed rules regarding banks and credit institutions' e-wallet services, mainly to help ease micro-transactions. A digital wallet (e-wallet) is a software-based system that securely stores users' payment information and passwords for numerous payment methods and websites.
