New E-Pay Services Unveiled at Tehran Elecomp 2017

Iranian payment service providers unveiled new e-payment services and smartphone applications at the 23rd International Exhibition of Electronics, Computer and E-Commerce (aka Elecomp 2017) that opened in Tehran on July 21.

Money transfer via smartphone applications, mobile payment software development kits (SDK) and inauguration of mobile point of sale (mPOS) were the main focus of PSP companies during the exhibition.

Some of the most active and well-known PSPs and their new technologies presented in Tehran Elecomp 2017 are as follows:

Sadad

Electronic payment company Sadad is one of the 12 PSPs authorized by Shaparak, the entity in charge of Iran's payment network.

The company started its activities in July 2014, focusing on three main fields, namely e-payment, production of e-pay applications and supporting payment tools.

The company unveiled the new versions of payment applications such as Iva and Pulse alongside new products for making SDK payment.

According to the company's CEO, Mohammad Mehdi Sadeq, Iva users can now pay their departure taxes and driving fines directly in-app.

"Money transfer through Iva will also be available from next week," he added.

Sadeq noted that Sadad has started working on mPOS devices since past two months and is determined to expand this new service, especially since there is a shortage of banks' GPRS POS devices and mPOS can be a suitable substitute.

"Another use of mPOS devices is that they can be an analyzer of POS devices. Those who use mPOS can install an application on their phone to save and manage all their bank card transactions," he added, noting that this service is not operational yet, but it will be within three days of unveiling the new device.

He noted that Sadad has 650,000 POS devices across the country, 150,000 of which are equipped with near-field communication systems and "we plan to extend the number of NFC systems to more than half of POS devices in the foreseeable future".

Pecco

Parsian E-Commerce Company was established in 2000 and focused its activities on supplying and supporting POS devices in shops and banks' ATMs, offering e-payment services through Internet and cellphones and producing software systems for managing payment transactions.

This is the third time the company participated in Tehran Elecomp.

Pecco introduced new features of its mobile payment application known as Top during the exhibition. The company has put a lot of effort in introducing Top to people, which provides a secure environment for payment transactions.

According to Abdolazim Qanbarian, the company's CEO, Top also unveiled its money transfer service at the exhibition, which is currently available for six host banks, namely Post Bank, Bank Sina, Bank Day, Bank Shahr, Bank Parsian and Hekmat Iranian Bank.

The number of Pecco mobile transactions during the year to March 21, 2017, registered an increase of 109% compared with its previous year. Transactions also jumped by 259% year-on-year, which show that Top is finding its place among people.

"The online purchase of traffic permits and payment of landline bills are exclusive features of Top," Qanbarian said.

The company's chief noted that the new version of Top is ready for Android while the iOS version awaits Apple's authorization and will be officially published on App Store afterwards.

Pecco also introduced the latest version of gift cards that can be recharged as much as the customer wants through ATMs and the Top application.

SEP

Saman E-Payment (aka SEP) focused on mobile payment services such as Sesoot and a mobile payment gateway.

The SEP mobile payment gateway is actually an SDK that makes it easy for users to make their in-app payments without needing to use an external payment gateway.

The company did not want to fall behind other PSPs, therefore they have also launched a money transfer service in Sesoot app.

According to Farid Setareh, the head of research and development of Saman E-Payment company, the Sesoot app has been designed in a way that users do not need to upgrade the app frequently.

Asan Pardakht, Behpardakht Mellat, Fanap and Iran Kish Credit Card company were the other PSPs that participated in Elecomp 2017 and introduced their achievements and services.