Iran's nationwide payment settlement network, known as Shaparak, said it processed almost 3.09 billion transactions worth 6,267.4 trillion rials ($22.09 billion) in the calendar month to Jan. 21.
The transactions declined 6.16% in value and 5.23% in volume compared to the 3.26 billion transactions worth 6,679 trillion rials a month earlier.
However, it was up 37.3% and 10.62% in volume and value y/y, respectively, though the higher value could be partly attributed to the galloping inflation – surging near 40% according to official data.
The company ascribed the annual increase to the rise in payment instruments and debit cards plus the public preference for e-payment instead of cash due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Shaparak presents figures in real value terms to adjust for inflation. Accordingly, the real value of transactions registered 8.34% decline on a monthly basis. This is while the figure was 1.1% higher Y/Y.
With more than 13.03 million payment instruments in use during the month, the total showed 0.59% growth on the earlier month.
The rise was mainly attributed to point-of-sale devices in shops, which grew 0.46% to reach 9.88 million. The number of mobile gateways and online payment modes rose 0.67% and 1.3% in the month, respectively.
In terms of market share, POS devices topped the list with 75.84%. Online gateways were next at 12.63% followed by mobile payment gateways at 11.53%.
The higher number of POS devices is due to their wider spread compared to other devices plus the convenience with which payments can be made without the need for supplementary devices such as PC or cellphone, which may not always be accessible.
POS devices accounted for 91.33% of the total deals processing 2.82 billion transactions worth 5,471 trillion rials ($18.2 billion) in one month.
Online gateways were next with 5.23% and mobile instruments at 3.34%. In terms of services offered by Shaparak, data show that 87.8% of transactions were for “buying goods and services”.
“Buying cellphone recharges and paying bills” accounted for 7.74% of all transactions in the month. More than 4.41% of the transactions were conducted for “checking account balances”.
Penetration Rate
As for the penetration rate of payment tools, the report said there were 2,108 instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old).
POS devices had the highest and mobile instruments the lowest penetration rates with 1598 and 243 instruments per 10,000 adults, respectively.
Tehran province as always was first with the highest number of POS terminals. There were 1.918 million active POS devices in the sprawling metropolis – down 0.16% on the previous month. Khorasan Razavi Province had 749.123 and Isfahan 660,547 devices.
PSPs
Shaparak reflected on the performance of payment service providers in the month. Saman Electronic Payment Company, affiliated to Saman Bank, accounted for the highest number of transactions with 21.15%. Beh Pardakht Mellat, a Bank Mellat-affiliated PSP, was next with 20.47%.
Peh Pardakht, however, topped the list in terms of the total value of transactions accounting for 19.52% of the total. SEP was second with 17.12%.
Parsian Electronic Commerce Company, affiliated to Parsian Bank, came in third on both lists, accounting for 17.71% of the transactions and 12.3% of the total value.
