Transactions processed by the payment settlement network, Shaparak, declined 12.7% in number and 29.47% in value on a monthly basis in the last calendar month to April 20.
More than 2.81 billion transactions worth 4,106.19 trillion rials ($18.5 billion) were processed in the month coinciding with decline in business activity due to a two-week Nowrouz holidays marking the Iranian new year.
Compared to the corresponding period a year ago, the transactions soared both in value and volume under high inflation and relatively loose lockdowns when the government enforced the first round of social distancing to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
The transactional value then jumped 107.5% compared to the same period a year earlier when 1.92 billion transactions worth 1,978.58 trillion rials ($9.1b) were processed. In volume terms it showed 46.65% growth on a year-on-year basis.
Adjusted for point-to-point inflation of 49.5% in the reviewed month, data indicate the real value of transactions was still 38.8% higher compared to the same month last year.
Payment Services
Payment services are normally offered via Internet, cellphone and point of sale (POS) terminals. The number of instruments for processing payments showed 0.61% increase compared to the earlier month reaching 12.7 million.
With the biggest contribution to growth, the number of internet payment gateways increased 0.91% to reach 1.58 million.
Reaching 9.66 million, POS terminals experienced 0.62% rise during the period. Mobile instruments had the lowest growth at 0.27%.
As is usually the case, POS devices topped the list of instruments with the biggest market share at 76.05%. This was followed by online payment gateways 12.5% and mobile instruments 11.45% share of the market.
Processing more than 2.54 billion transactions worth 3,515.10 trillion rials ($16.73b), POS devices accounted for 90% of the total number of transactions.
Online gateways were next at 6.07% followed by mobile instruments at 3.74%.
In terms of services offered by Shaparak, data showed that during the month under review, 87.22% of the transactions were conducted for “buying goods and services.
“Buying cellphone recharges and paying bills” was in second place accounting for 7.99% of the services and 4.78% of the transactions were for “checking accounts.”
In the month to April 20, there were 2,054 instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old). POS terminals as usual held the lion's share with 1,562 instruments per 10,000 adults. Mobile Instruments had the lowest penetration with 235 instruments per 10,000 adults.
Tehran Province topped the list of provinces with the highest number of POS terminals with 1.96 million, indicating 0.30% rise compared to the earlier month.
This was followed by Khorasan Razavi with 743,115 and Isfahan with 668,918 active devices. Ilam Province had the lowest number of POS devices with 67,897 devices.
