79.5 Million Active Bank Cards in Iran

Shaparak, Iran's domestic payment network, latest data shows that more than 79.5 million bank cards have been used at least once during the month that ended on May 21.  ¹

According to Shaprak, Bank Melli Iran accounts for 20.73% of all active bank cards in the country. Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat Iran follow, accounting for 12.17% and 12.07% of active bank cards, respectively.

Iran's population was 79.96 million by March 2017, according to Iran Statistical Center. ²

Iranian banks currently issue credit cards, debit cards, and gift cards. During the period, BMI produced the lion's share of debit cards, constituting 21.38% of the total.

Bank Saderat, however, dominated the gift card market and accounted for 24.44% of all gift cards issued. During the period, Shaparak recorded 74 million debit card transactions.

The least number of transactions went to credit cards, which reached 83,000 and accounted for 0.1% of the total digital payments. BMI was also the top issuer of credit cards at 49.03%.  

Shaparak handled 1.29 billion transactions in the 30-day period, marking a 36.6% increase compared with the same period last year. ³

(^{1, 2, 3,} Modified on June 30, 2017)