44% Growth in Iran Digital Transactions' Value

Shaparak, Iran’s nationwide payment network, processed 1.09 million successful transactions worth 1,258 trillion rials ($32 billion) during the month ending January 19, marking a 30% growth in transactions’ volume and 44% in their value year-on-year.

The latest issue of Shaparak’s monthly report also indicates a 1.91% growth in the number of transactions and a 5.68% growth in the value of transactions compared with the previous month.

Data show 238,220 transactions failed in the 10th month of the Iranian fiscal year, up by 2.8% compared with the previous month. Failed transactions accounted for less than 9.26% of total transactions.

User errors were behind 81% of failed transactions in the period. Issuers’ and acquirers accounted for 16.24% and 1.74% of failed transactions respectively. 

Of the total transactions, 75% were used for shopping, 18.3% for paying bills and the rest 6.7% were used for checking account balance.

POS terminals are still the most widely used payment tool in Iran. A total of 5.76 million POS terminals processed 952.2 million transactions during the month to January 19. 

Transactions worth 50,001-250,000 rials accounted for 37.21% of total transactions processed by POS terminals. 

According to Shaparak data, transactions worth less than 500,000 rials accounted for 90% of POS transactions in the period.

The total number of online gates reached 321,869 by Jan. 19, registering a 27% growth compared with the preceding month. Online gates processed 96 trillion rials ($2.5 billion) worth of transactions during the period. 

The value of 48% of transactions processed by online gates was less than 250,000 rials. 

Acquirers

Beh Pardakht Mellat, affiliated with Bank Mellat, accounted for 23.58% of the total e-transactions to remain the leading payment service provider in Iran’s market during the month ending January 19.

Saman Electronic Payment, affiliated with Saman Bank, ranked second with 17.19% market share. Asan Pardakht Persian and PECCO were placed third and fourth respectively.  

Beh Pardakht also was behind with 31.59% of transactions’ value. It also dominated market share in POS terminal and online transactions. Asan Pardakht Persian remained the leading PSP in mobile transactions, enjoying 41.69% share of the market.

Card Issuers

According to Shaparak data, 73.97 million bank cards were at least used once during the 10th month of the fiscal year, 93.5% of which were debit cards. 

More than 106,000 credit cards were active in the period, down by 36% compared with the previous month.

Bank Melli Iran accounted for 20.74% of active cards in the period. Bank Mellat, Bank Saderat Iran and Bank Keshavarzi followed, accounting for 12.57%, 12.37% and 7.31% of total bank cards.

BMI issued 21.65% of debit cards and 71.11% of credit cards. Bank Saderat Iran issued 38.6% of gift cards, higher than other lenders.