E-Payment Deals Outpace GDP

The volume of electronic payment transactions during the second half of the previous Iranian fiscal to March 20, 2017 has exceeded the figure of gross domestic product.

According to the latest data released by Shaparak, the body in charge of Iran’s payment network, electronic transactions of Iran’s payment network during the three-month period of the previous autumn to Dec. 20, 2016, reached 3.47 quadrillion rials ($82.61 billion), which is almost 12% more than the total value of GDP in the corresponding period, which stood at 3.1 quadrillion rials ($73.8 billion).

Electronic transactions kept surging in the following months, as it outpaced the GDP by 29.2% during the following winter to March 21, 2016.

Electronic transactions in the previous winter registered a collective value of 4.15 quadrillion rials ($98.8 billion) while the figure of GDP stood at 3.21 quadrillion rials ($76.42 billion).

In its latest report, Shaparak also published the details of electronic transactions for the month ending Nov. 21, 2017, according to which the number of transactions during the aforementioned month has increased while their value declined slightly.

Shaparak recorded a total of 1,395,281,210 electronic transactions during the Iranian month of Aban (Oct. 22-Nov. 21), up by 2.59% and 33.39% compared with its prior month and the same month of last year, respectively.

This is while the value of transactions during the same period registered a monthly drop of 2.88% or 41 trillion rials ($970 million) and stood at 1.39 quadrillion rials ($33.09 billion).

However, the volume of electronic transactions during the month to Nov. 21 marked an annual increase of 212 trillion rials ($5.04 billion) or 17.96%.

Despite the fact that the number of transactions increased by 33.39% during last year, a part of the increase in the value of transactions is due to the inflation rate during the period.

Significant growth in the number of point of sale terminals, bank card holders and various payment tools, as well as the increasing popularity of using electronic payment methods instead of cash, are among the reasons behind the surge in electronic transactions.

  POS Terminals Favorite Payment Tool

According to Shaparak’s report, POS terminals continue to be the favorite payment tools in Iran, as they account for 85.87% of active payment tools in the country.

While the data indicate that the number of POS terminals by the end of the month to Nov. 21 reached 6,691,355, which is almost 100,000 more than the number of active POS terminals in the previous month, they are losing their market share to other electronic payment methods.

POS terminals used to account for more than 95% of active payment devices in the country until last January, but as online and mobile payment methods have boomed in the past few months, they have grabbed a piece of POS terminals’ market share.  

Despite the 32% increase in the number of active mobile gateways during the month to Nov. 21compared to its previous month, they still hold the smallest share of electronic payments at 5.85%. However, the figure of their share has increased by 1.28% compared to the month before.

The report also indicates that the number of active online gateways during the month to Nov.21 also increased by 2.42% to reach 645,159. However, their share in the electronic payment market posted a slight drop of 0.04% compared to its previous month.

In addition to handling electronic payment methods, Shaparak offers other services such as paying phone bills and checking account balances.

Payment transactions accounted for 77.61% of Shaparak’s services during the month to Nov.21. Buying mobile top-ups and checking the balance of bank accounts accounted for 16.36% and 6.03 of Shaparak’s activities during the aforementioned period, respectively.

 Tehran Province still has the largest number of POS terminals in its markets with their number exceeding 1.48 million. After Tehran, the provinces of Khorasan Razavi, Isfahan, Fars and Khuzestan respectively accounted for the biggest share of POS terminals.