The nationwide e-payment settlement network, Shaparak, processed more than 33.16 billion payments worth 54,571 trillion rials ($228.8 billion) in the last fiscal year that ended in March.
The number was up 24.15% in volume and 67.73% higher in value compared with the year before, according to the annual report published by Shaparak company.
A comparison of the total number of electronic payments in recent years shows that the growth was not unusual because electronic payment is strongly encourage in the country.
The increase in value could be partly attributed to the rise in inflation and higher consumer prices. Shaparak publishes data in real value terms adjusted for inflation. Accordingly, the real value of transactions registered 22.19% growth YOY.
With more than 12.62 million payment instruments operating by the end of the year, the total number of instruments grew 16.9 % compared to the year before.
POS Rules
In terms of market share, POS devices were at the top with 76.5% share. Online gateways were next at 12.46% followed by mobile gateways 11.49%.
POS devices registered 1.17% decline in the share from the total number of payment tools last years despite the increase in the number of terminals from 8.33 million to 9.6 million.
Higher number of POS devices is mainly ascribed to their wider spread compared to other devices as well as the convenience with which payments can be are made without the need for supplementary devices such as PC or cellphone, which may not always be accessible.
POS devices accounted for 84.34% of the total number of transactions. Online gateways were next with 15.44% of the total while mobile instruments represented 0.22%.
In terms of services offered by Shaparak, figures show that 86.71% of transactions were related to “buying goods and services”.
“Buying cellphone recharges and paying bills” accounted for 8.4% of all processed transactions during the month under review. More than 4.9% of the transactions were conducted for “checking account balances”.
As for the penetration rate of payment tools, the report said there were 2,078 instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old).
POS devices had the highest and mobile instruments the lowest penetration rates with 1,580 and 238.8 instruments per 10,000 adults, respectively.
According to Shaparak, more than 3 billion transactions failed during the year under the review. In analyzing defective transactions, the company said the total unsuccessful transactions increased by 7.7% in the period compared to the month before.
User errors accounted for a majority of the rejections with 86.9% share of the total failed transactions followed by errors by issuer banks at 11.28%.
