The nationwide e-payment settlement network, Shaparak, processed an estimated 38.85 billion payments worth 71,274 trillion rials ($236.8 billion) in the last fiscal year that ended in March.
This was up 17.15% in volume and 33.05% higher in value on the previous year, Shaparak company said in its annual report.
Comparison of the performance of e-payments in recent years shows that the pattern of growth was natural because such payments are easy to make and preferred by the majority of the population.
Increase in value of payments was apparently due to the high and rising inflation across the board, in particular consumer prices. Shaparak publishes data in real terms adjusted for inflation. Accordingly, the real value of transactions plunged 5.09% y/y.
As per data released by the Statistical Center of Iran, the consumer price index in the said year jumped 40.18% from the year before.
With more than 10.2 million payment instruments operating by the end of the year, the total number of such instruments plunged 20.53% on the year before.
In market share, POS devices were at the top with 89.51%, online gateways were next at 6.52% followed by mobile gateways 3.97%.
POS devices registered 14.9% growth from the total number of payment tools last year despite increase in the number of terminals from 9.6 million to 9.15 million.
The higher number of POS devices is largely because of their wider spread compared to other devices and the convenience with which payments can be made without the need for supplementary devices such as a PC or cellphone, which may not always be accessible.
POS devices accounted for 89% of the total mode of transactions. Online gateways were next with 6.52% and mobile instruments 3.97%.
In terms of services offered by Shaparak, figures show 88.01% of transactions were related to buying goods and services.
“Buying cellphone recharges and paying bills” accounted for 7.52% of all transactions during the month. More than 4.47% of the transactions were for checking bank balances.
As for the penetration rate of payment tools, the report said there were 1,655.12 instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old).
