More than 3.196 billion retail transactions were processed by the Iranian payment settlement network, known locally as Shaparak, in the first month of the calendar year to April 20.
The transactions were worth 5,438.79 trillion rials ($19.21 billion) – up 11% in volume but down 26.89% in value from the month before, Shaparak website reported.
The value of transactions rose 32.45% on the same month last year when 2.81 billion transactions worth 4,196.8 trillion rials ($14.82 billion) were processed. In volume terms it showed 13.45% growth y/y. Observers say increase in the trend of transactions is a promising sign that businesses are gradually returning to the pre-Covid era.
Shaparak presents figures in real value terms to adjust for inflation. However, when adjusted for inflation, the real value of transactions declined 29.37% on a monthly basis. Likewise, the real value of transactions fell 2.9% from the same month last year when factoring out annual inflation.
In terms of services offered by Shaparak, data show that during the month under review, 88.32% of the transactions were for buying goods and services. Buying cellphone recharges and paying bills was second, accounting for 7% of the services while 4.6% of the transactions were for checking bank account balances.
The nation-wide network failed to process 254.3 million transactions during the month.
Mode of Service
Shaparak offers services via the internet, cellphone and point of sale (POS) devices.
The number of instruments for processing payments showed 12.26% decline over the earlier month, reaching 8.85 million.
The fall was more severe in mobile gateways, which dropped 61.48% from 405,991 to 156,378.
At 344,000, online payment gateways plunged 48.42% during the mentioned period and point-of-sale devices in shops declined 8.79%.
Decline in the number of payment gateways comes mostly after the implementation of stringent measures by the Iran National Tax Administration obliging owners of payment gateways to connect their devices with INTA's database or stop using them.
As is usually the case, POS devices topped the list of instruments with the biggest market share at 94.35%. This was followed by online payment gateways at 389% and mobile instruments 1.77%.
Processing more than 2.94 billion transactions worth 4,711.6 trillion rials ($16.6 billion), POS devices accounted for 92.25% of the total number of transactions.
Online gateways were second accounting for 4.61% of the total number of transactions followed by mobile instruments at 3.13%.
Based on the report, there were 1,432 instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old). As always, POS terminals topped the list with 1,351 instruments per 10,000 adults.
Mobile instruments had the lowest penetration rate with 25.29 instruments per 10,000 adults.
Tehran Province topped the list of provinces with the highest number of POS terminals. There were 1.52 million active POS devices in the sprawling metropolis, which was 11% lower on the earlier month.
This was followed by Khorasan Razavi with 636,168 and Isfahan 554,450 active devices. Ilam Province had the lowest number of POS devices at 58,255.
Shaparak said almost one-third of the transactions made via POS terminals were each worth 50,001 to 250,000 rials. More than half the POS transactions were above 250,000 rials.
