11 Iranian PSPs Among Global Acquirers

EghtesadOnline: Eleven Iranian payment service provider companies are among the world’s top 150 acquirers, according to the latest report by Nilson Report Magazine, a journal specializing in payment industry news and statistics.

News ID: ۷۴۸۶۵۳

08 October 2019

Behpardakht Mellat, affiliated to Bank Mellat, ranked 15th on the list with over 4.3 billion transactions in 2018. The company improved one notch over its 16th place in 2017.

With 3.6 billion transactions, Saman Bank’s E-Payment Company ranked 19th in 2018, improving 4 places over its position in 2017.

Asan Pardakht Persian ranked 22th, rising 3 places compared with its previous standing at 25 in 2017, Financial Tribune reported.

Parsian E-Commerce Company, an affiliate of Parsian Bank, currently on 27th position rose from 28th in 2018.  The payment company processed 2.9 billion transactions in the year.

Iran Kish Credit Card Company handled 1.8 billion transactions and took 33th spot in the new ranking. The company registered a dramatic improvement, up 9 slots from 42 in 2017.

Sadad Electronic Payment Company, affiliated to the state-owned Bank Melli Iran was 48th, improving 4 places compared to the 2017 report. The PSP handled 1.2 billion transactions in 2018.

Pasargad Electronic Payment Company, affiliated to Bank Pasargad Iran, was demoted two ranks to 58th in the 2018 report. Pasragad handled 930 million transactions for the year.

Fanava Card Company went up 8 slots in the new report from the previous 72 to 64 in 2018. The number of transactions processed by Fanava was 774 million.

Pardakht Novin Arian Company made the biggest fall --  30 places  -- from 62d in 2017 to 92 in the new report. The number of transactions processed by this PSP was put at 329 million in 2018.

Processing more than 220 million transactions in 2018, Sayan Card jumped from the previous 109th to 105th in the new report.

Finally, Sepehr Electronic Payment Company was ranked 110th in 2018, falling 4 positions from the previous report.

The top 150 acquirers rated in the Nilson Report were headquartered in 41 countries. The 11 acquirers from Iran handled only debit card payments for the domestic market, according to the report. Credit cards are not issued in Iran and are very rare due to sanctions and other payment restrictions with other countries.

US-based companies accounted for 34 places on the ranking.

Russian acquirers held 8 places. The French held 6 places, with 5 each in Japan and Turkey and 4 each in Australia, Brazil, Italy and South Korea.

New in the top 10 was China UMS, which jumped over Brazil-based Cielo. Newcomers in the top 150 were PagSeguro in Brazil and Millennium BCP in Portugal.

Monthly Report

The last report by Iran’s main payment settlement network, Shaparak, covering the performance of PSPs in the sixth month in the calendar year to September 22, shows BehPardakht Mellat processed 22.38% of total transactions.

This was followed by Saman Electronic Payment that accounted for 18.79% of the total transactions.

Parsian E-Commerce was next with the highest share, handling 15.08% of all transactions.

In terms of transaction value, BehPardakht Mellat again ranked first, processing 23.86% of the overall value.

Likewise, Saman Electronic Payment took second place with a 15.73% share.

In the third position was Iran kish Credit Card Company, accounting for 12.86% of the total value of transactions.

BehPardakht Mellat ranked first as the PSP firm with the highest share in both volume and value of transactions conducted through point of sale terminals, respectively accounting for 23.77% and 22.94%  of transactions.

Saman Electronic had the biggest share both in volume and value processed through mobile gateways, accounting for 28.26% and 28.60% of all transactions, respectively.

In terms of volume of transactions via online payment gateways, Asan Pardakht Persian topped the list with a 36.31% of the total.