Leading Turkish online payment company, Iyzico, will soon be able to handle payments in Iran, according to Barbaros Ozbugutu, co-founder and CEO of the company.
“Since signing a deal, we have connected our platform to Iranian banks and ran tests on it. And it works. We need to obtain a financial license and open our branch in Iran, which we will do in the next couple of weeks. We will then launch pilot tests with three merchants, and expect to become fully operational by September,” he was quoted as saying by bne IntelliNews earlier this week.
Any foreign cooperation requires permission from the Central Bank of Iran.
As for profitability, Ozbugutu says that Iyzico’s focus now is to expand the business and get established in Iran
Turkish retailers like fast fashion chain LC Waikiki are vying for the Iranian market, so the CEO is confident that iyzico will prove a hit with online businesses interested in Iran. “Between Turkey and Iran, we can provide international retailers access to some 400 million cards,” he says.
In February, the company signed an agreement with the Parsian E-Commerce Company (PECCO) to service Iranian merchants and international e-businesses looking to attract Iranian online customers. PECCO is a major affiliate of the Parsian Financial Group. The company was established in 2000 as the first Payment Service Provider (PSP) in Iran.
Currently, 12 authorized Payment Service Providers (PSP) are active in Iran’s e-payment industry with more than 4 million active terminals. SHETAB, the Iranian interbank network with about 30-35 million users, hosts about 200 million transactions every day.
