Iran Digital Payment Transactions Hit $42b in 1 Month

EghtesadOnline: More than 1.64 billion transactions with a total value of 1.78 quadrillion rials ($41.85 billion) were registered by Shaparak, the Central Bank of Iran-affiliated entity in charge of the country's payment settlement system, during the second month of the current fiscal year that ended on May 21.

News ID: ۷۸۳۰۹۶

30 June 2018

According to the latest report published by the entity's official website, those numbers indicated an increase of 13.67% in terms of number of transactions and a surge of 51.59% in terms of value compared to the previous month. The number and value of total transactions grew by 28.29% and 34.44% respectively year-on-year.

But those numbers indicate the nominal value, as they are impacted by inflation. After eliminating the effect of inflation, the growth in value of transactions was 49.14% compared to the first month of the current year and 22.54% when compared with the second month of the previous year.

According to Shaparak, the ratio of total transactions to Iran's liquidity, which rose above 10%, has prevailed, Financial Tribune reported.

The entity publishes such data for a few months prior to its transactions data, because it also requires official liquidity numbers from the central bank. The Shaparak report shows that the ratio of total transactions to liquidity stood at 10.81% by the end of the penultimate month of the previous fiscal year to Feb. 19.

Internet instruments of receiving payments held a market share of 8.55% in terms of numbers during the second month of the current year while mobile instruments had an 11.17% share. Point-of-sale devices in shops still had a dominating number share of 80.28%.

The shares were almost identical to the previous month, except for a slight rise in Internet devices that chipped away at the share of POS devices.

In terms of handling transactions, POS devices had an even bigger share at 89.34%. Internet and mobile instruments grabbed a respective share of 6.85% and 3.82%.

In terms of numbers, the purpose of 80.5% of all Shaparak transactions registered during the second month of the year was to purchase goods and services. Paying bills and topping up phone recharges had a 13.66% share with the rest going to transactions aimed at inquiring account balances. In terms of value, the purchase of goods and services had a 93.61% share with the rest going to the second category.

According to Shaparak, more than 1.64 billion or 90.79% of all transactions conducted during the second month of the current Iranian year were successful.

At more than 14.4 million, almost all failed transactions were caused by user error and that share had a 6.35% increase compared with the previous month.