Tech to Shake Up Micro Transactions

Iran’s financial system is gradually undergoing a technological evolution in micropayments by the introduction of NFC (Near-Field Communication) services tailored for handling small payments.
An e-wallet dubbed “Kipaad” was unveiled last October, a joint product of  Pasargad Bank, mobile operator MTN-Irancell and Fanap—the electronic payments solutions company affiliated with Bank Pasargad—to manage minor payments under 500,000 rials ($11).
The system first went into execution in the eastern shrine city of Mashhad and the northwestern city of Qazvin and will soon be launched in Tehran.
The offline e-wallet is designed to use SIM cards provided by Iran’s second largest mobile operator MTN-Irancell to safely and quickly conduct micro transactions for Android users.
NFC is a short-range wireless connectivity standard that uses magnetic field induction to enable communications between devices when they are touched together, or brought within a few centimeters of each other.
The method has proven successful as 7,500 daily transactions are made employing NFC services only in the public transportation sector of Mashhad.