Data released by Shaparak, the company in charge of supervising the domestic e-payment network, show more than 143.5 million bank cards were used at least once during the first month of the current fiscal year (started March 21).
The number was down 5.18% on the month before when it was 151.3 million. Debit cards topped the list accounting for 93.58% (134.34 million) of the total active cards.
More than 21.04% of the debit cards were issued by Bank Melli followed by Bank Sepah with 11.37% and Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat Iran each at 10.5%.
The number of credit cards decreased by 30.38% to 0.33% of the total cards in the month. According to Shaparak, 471,005 credit cards were used at least once in the said month.
Bank Melli was the issuer of 91% of the credit cards, followed by Bank Saderat Iran 2% and Bank Tejarat 1.8%.
The company said 8.74 million gift cards were used at least once during the month to April 20. More than 14.13% of such cards were issued by Bank Melli Iran. Bank Sepah was next with 9.5% and Shahr Bank 9.07%.
The domestic e-payment network processed an estimated 3.69 billion retail transactions in the first month of the calendar year to April 21.
It processed an estimated 11,688 trillion rials ($22.91 billion) e-payments -- up 15.55% in volume and 50.97% in value on the same period last year, the company said on its website.
In volume terms, transactions were 12.88% lower on the month before when 4.22 billion transactions worth 11,688 trillion rials ($14.5 billion) were reported. The value was down 29.75% on the month before.
The number of instruments for processing payments was up 0.62% from the earlier month, reaching 10.78 million.
However, growth was noticeable in online payment gateways, up 1.41% to 802,611. Total POS terminals, mostly used by retail outlets, increased 0.59% to 9.85 million devices, but mobile payments were almost unchanged at 123,528.
As is the norm, POS devices topped the list of instruments with the biggest market share at 92.24% followed by online payment gateways 5.1% and mobile instruments 2.66%.
Processing more than 3.4 billion transactions worth 6,927 trillion rials ($19.5 billion), POS devices accounted for 92.36% of the total transactions.
Based on the report, there were 1,744 instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old) and POS terminals topped the list with 1,594.51 per 10,000 adults. Mobile instruments had the lowest penetration rate with 19.99 instruments for every 10,000 adults.
Higher Fees
The Central Bank of Iran on Sunday unveiled a long-awaited fee model for transactions per which payment acquirers, shops and retailers will be charged for transactions via POS terminals.
Up until the weekend, banks receiving and making payments had to bear the bulk of payment fees because when a payment was made with a bank card, the bank receiving the payment has to pay a fee to the bank whose card has been used. This was on top of the amount banks pay as rent and support fees for each POS device to payment service providers.
Unlike the past the new system requires shops, where POS terminals are used, to pay a fee for each transaction.
In the new model three parties bear the cost, namely the merchant, issuing bank and the acquiring bank even though banks are still responsible for the big portion of the costs.
Acquiring banks used to pay between 500 to 2,500 rials for each transaction. Whereas, in the new system acquiring banks will pay a 0.0005-rial fee each transaction.
Research by the CBI shows that implementation of the new model should reduce bank costs by 48% that will instead be paid by retailers.
Based on the new formula, merchants pay a fixed fee of 1,200 rials for transactions below 6 million rials and 0.0002 (two-thousandths) of the transaction amount up to a cap of 40,000 rials for transactions above 6 million rials.
The current transaction ceiling is 1 billion rials; therefore, under the new plan, a merchant will have to pay a maximum fee of 40,000 rials for a 1-billion-rial transaction while (debit card) issuing banks will pay a fixed amount of 240 rials for each transaction.
