Data released by Shaparak, the company in charge of Iran's domestic payment network, show more than 123.1 million bank cards were used at least once in the ninth month to December of the current fiscal year.
The number was down 0.86% compared to the month before when it was 125.16 million, the company said in a report seen on its website.
Debit cards were the most common alone accounting for 95.15% (117.17 million) of total active cards. Total debit cards used dropped 0.68% during the period.
More than 22.15% debit cards were issued by Bank Melli Iran, followed by Bank Sepah at 12.27% and Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat each with 11% share of the total.
The share of credit cards decreased to 2.6% of the total cards used in the month. According to Shaparak, 451,656 credit cards were used at least once during the period.
Credit cards are still not a norm in Iran and for long were limited to VIPs. But now that seems to be changing. CBI policy of promoting credit cards as an instrument for microloan is influencing banks to rethink.
Bank Melli Iran was the issuer of 57.82% of total credit cards, followed by Bank Sepah 22.7% and Bank Mellat 5%. Gift cards posted 3.65% decrease during the month.
The company said 5.52 million gift cards were used at least once during the month. An estimated 17.63% of gift cards were issued by Bank Mellat, Bank Melli was next with 12.71% followed by Parsian Bank 10.84%.
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.
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. The higher value is attributed also to the galloping inflation – near 40% and rising.
