A decision by the Central Bank of Iran requiring all bank card holders to use one-time passwords for online transactions has had no significant change on payment services providers' performance.
The monthly report published by Shaparak Company, the body in charge of supervising national electronic payments, does not show significant decline in the total online transactions during the first month of OTP implementation (Jan 20 to Feb 19).
Topping the declining list of online transactions was Asan Paradakht Persian. Thanks to its popular mobile application ‘AP’, the company accounts for one-third of total online transactions. The share, however, declined by 3% in the month to February 19.
Beh Pardakht Mellat, and Saman Electronic Payment were the only PSPs registering growth in share of the total number of online transactions during the period, 1.5% and 1.31%, respectively.
Using OTP is problematic for many people as they are required to install special applications on their smart phones. Some people simply do not own a smart phone to be able to use the service.
Experts were expecting a sharp decline in number of online transactions after the implementation of the controversial CBI plan because it would make the process a bit complicated for cardholders.
To address the issue, SMS services were offered by the CBI to address a large group of customers who don’t use smart phones to install banking applications.
Asan Pardakht also enjoys the lion’s share of mobile transaction, accounting for 31% of the USSD transactions.
Beh Pardakht Mellat, affiliated to Bank Mellat, took the lead in transactions made through POS terminals. Cardholders can use their static password for making such transactions. Beh Pardakht accounted for 23% of POS terminal transactions during the month to February 19. Samen and Parsian E-Commerce Company came second and third with 19% and 15.7%, respectively.
