Iran Electronic Transactions Up 34%

Shaparak, Iran’s nationwide payment network, processed 1.288 billion transactions during the month ending June 21, marking a 34% growth, compared with the same period of last year.

According to the latest report released by Shaparak, the total value of transactions reached 1.386 quadrillion rials ($36.96 billion) during the period, registering a 33.8% growth year-on-year.

According to Shaparak’s report, each Iranian above 20 years made 22.39 transactions during the period.

POS terminals accounted for 87% of total transactions in the one month, marking a slight growth of 2% year-on-year. The total number of active POS terminals in Iran reached 6.4 million by June 21.

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

Beh Pardakht Mellat, the leading PSP firm in Iranian market, processed almost a quarter of all POS terminal transactions according to released data. The company owns 15% of total active POS terminals in the market.

Mobile gateways and online gateways respectively processed 9.2% and 2.9% of transactions. Transactions worth less than 50,000 rials accounted for 67% of mobile payments and 655% of online payment transactions worth less than 250,000 rials during the period.

Asan Pardakht and Saman Electronic Payment respectively processed 37% of mobile transactions and 25% of online transactions, becoming the leading acquirers in each category.

Considering all the transactions processed in the period, Beh Pardakht Mellat remained the top Iranian PSP with a 22% share of the market. Saman (17%), Asan Pardakht (14.6%) and Parsian E-Commerce Company (13.6%) were other major players in the market.  

Bank Cards

A total of 79.68 million bank cards were used at least once during the period, 94% of which were debit cards.

The total number of bank cards remained almost unchanged, compared with the previous month. However, Shaparak has reported 24% growth in total number of credit cards and a drop of 19.5% in the number of gift cards.

Bank Melli Iran accounted for 21% of active debit cards. Bank Mellat and Bank Saderat Iran followed with 12.5% and 11.2%, respectively.

BMI was also the top issuer of credit cards during the month ending June 21, accounting for 37% of active credit cards. Bank Mellat, Bank Sepah and Bank Pasargad Iran were placed after BMI.

Bank Saderat Iran and Parsian Bank issued the highest number of gift cards during the period.

According to Shaparak, acquiring banks paid an average of 265.7 rials per 100,000 transactions as fees. Bank Sarmayeh and Export Development Bank of Iran paid the lowest sum of fees during the period, whereas Parsian Bank and Bank Hekmat Iranian paid the largest amounts of acquiring fees.