The domestic e-payment network processed an estimated 4.16 billion retail transactions in the first month of the calendar year to May 21, Shaparak, the company in charge of supervising the network, reported Sunday.
It processed an estimated 9,672 trillion rials ($20.15 billion) e-payments -- up 17.35% in volume and 44.86% in value on the same period last year, the company website said.
In volume terms, transactions were 13% higher on the month before when 3.54 billion transactions worth 6,677 trillion rials ($13.9 billion) were logged. The value was up 17.79% on the month before.
Shaparak presents figures in real value terms to adjust for inflation. However, when adjusted for inflation, the real value of transactions was up 14% on the month.
Real value was down 6.29% from the same month last year not factoring annual inflation. Data released by the Statistical Center of Iran, show the consumer price index in the month to May 21 climbed 2.76% on a monthly basis and 54.59% y/y.
Regarding network services, 90.16% was for buying goods and services. Buying cellphone recharges and paying bills was second at 5.73% while 4.12% of the transactions were for checking bank a/c balances.
The number of instruments for processing payments was up 0.58% from the earlier month, reaching 10.84 million. However, growth was noticeable in online payment gateways, up 4.17% to 836,094. Total POS terminals, mostly used by retail outlets, increased 0.31% to 9.89 million devices, but mobile payments were down by 1.14% at 122,153.
As is the norm, POS devices topped the list of instruments with the biggest market share at 91.17% followed by online payment gateways 7.71% and mobile instruments 1.13%.
Processing more than 3.4 billion transactions worth 7,984 trillion rials ($16.63 billion), POS devices accounted for 92.36% of the total transactions.
Based on the report, there were 1,754 instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old) and POS terminals topped the list with 1,599.74 per 10,000 adults. Mobile instruments had the lowest penetration rate with 19.76 instruments for every 10,000 adults.
Tehran topped the list of provinces with the highest number of POS terminals with 1.703 million devices in the sprawling metropolis – 0.65% higher on the earlier month.
This was followed by Khorasan Razavi with 748,076 devices and Fars 651,471. Ilam Province was at the bottom end with only 69,000 terminals.
Almost one-third of the transactions via POS terminals were each worth 50,001 to 250,000 rials. More than 52.4% of the total POS transactions were above 250,000 rials.
POS Rules
Figures indicate that there were about 59.75 transactions per 10,000 adults above 18 years. POS terminals topped the list with 55.11 transactions per 10,000 adults, followed by online gateways 3.04 transactions and mobile gateways 1.59 transactions.
During the period, more than 145.8 million bank cards were used at least once during the second month of the current fiscal year (started April 21).
The number was up 1.6% on the month before when it was 143.5 million. Debit cards topped the list accounting for 93.63% (136.5 million) of the total active cards.
More than 21.05% of the debit cards were issued by Bank Melli followed by Bank Sepah with 11.47% and Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat.
The number of credit cards increased by 12.14% to 0.36% of the total cards in the month. According to Shaparak, 528,197 credit cards were used at least once.
Bank Melli was the issuer of 91.77% of the credit cards, followed by Bank Tejarat 1.25% and Bank Saman Bank 1.13%.
The company said 8.76 million gift cards were used at least once during the month. More than 15.7% of such cards were issued by Bank Melli. Bank Mellat was next with 11.73% and Sepah Bank 8.87%.
