The supervisory body of the domestic payment network, Shaparak, said Bank Mellat acquired 19% of the electronic payment transactions in the calendar month to June 21.
It said Bank Melli Iran and Bank Sepah, both state-owned, ranked after with 15% and 11.08% share of the total transactions.
Acquiring banks are financial institutions that offer merchant accounts to businesses. The special accounts are necessary for merchants to receive debit and credit card payments directly. Acquiring banks may also be referred to as merchant banks or acquirers.
Bank Saderat, Bank Keshavarzi and Tejarat Bank were the other big names on the list.
Mellat also led in terms of the total value of acquired transactions, with 19.15% share. Bank Melli and Bank Saderat came in with 13% and 11.2%, respectively.
As per Central Bank of Iran regulations, acquirer banks must pay the fee of the transactions plus maintenance charges of payment instruments. Cardholders in Iran pay no fee for electronic transactions.
An estimated 3.7 billion retail transactions were processed during the month by the domestic electronic payment network worth 7,251 trillion rials ($22.65 billion) – up 4.24% in volume and 8.6% in value on the month before.
Banks in Iran issue credit cards, debit cards and gift cards, but credit cards are usually limited to VIPs.
Issuer Banks
According to the report, active bank cards reached 132.4 million in the month. Bank Melli was the issuer of 81.08% of the credit cards, followed by Bank Saderat 4.39% and Bank Sepah 3.91%.
Debit cards still dominate. Card holders made at least one transaction with 125.8 million debit cards in the month or nearly 95% of the total.
An estimated 21.85% debit cards were issued by Bank Melli Iran, followed by Bank Sepah 11.97% and Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat with 11.27% and 10.89%, respectively.
Bank Pasargad topped the list of private banks in terms of debit cards with 1.96% of the total. Ayandeh Bank and Shahr Bank were next with 1.58% and 1.53%, respectively.
The total number of credit cards, with at least one monthly transaction, increased 15% to June 20 and the number of active credit cards reached 625,632. Credit cards still account for a meager 0.47% of the total bank cards in Iran.
Lenders also issue prepaid (gift) cards, the number of which declined by 16% to 5.9 million in the month to June 20.
The company said 17.25% of the prepaid cards were issued by Bank Melli, Bank Mellat’s share was 13.57% followed by Parsian Bank 10%.
