Shaparak Transactions Show Strong Growth

EghtesadOnline: About 1.77 billion transactions worth 2.03 quadrillion rials ($48.33 billion) were transacted by Shaparak, Iran’s payment settlements network, during the fourth month of the current fiscal year that ended on July 22.

News ID: ۷۸۳۷۰۴

18 August 2018

The Central Bank of Iran-affiliated entity’s latest report published on its official website shows that the above figure marks an increase of 7.18% and 8.11% compared to the month before in terms of number and value of transactions respectively. Compared with the previous year, they show a respective hike of 28.88% and 46.37%.

But that number is excluding inflationary effect. When factoring out the inflation, the real value growth rate of all Shaparak transactions stands at 4.53% and 24.09% on a monthly and yearly basis respectively.

But as Aboutaleb Najafi, the CEO of Informatics Services Corporation—the company in charge of operating Iran’s payment systems, including Shaparak, warned in early August, ongoing currency fluctuations could curtail the steady annual growth of the country’s payment systems if they fail to subside by the end of the current fiscal year on March 20, 2019, Financial Tribune reported.

“We saw a 20% growth in the number of transactions in payment systems during the first three months compared with the similar period of last year, but because of currency issues and pressure on people, we may not witness these growth rates in the number of transactions by the end of the year,” he said.

According to Shaparak figures, the number of Internet payment receiving instruments grew by a monthly 26% during the fourth month of the year to reach 932,222. There were 975,157 and more than 6.96 million instruments of mobile payment receiving instruments and point-of-sale devices in shop respectively, both almost unchanged compared to the month before. The total number of payment receiving instruments by the end of the fourth month exceeded 8.69 million.

Internet and mobile payment receiving instruments each held a share of about 10% of the market by the end of the fourth month while POS devices still held a predominant share of 78.49%. But POS devices had an even bigger share in handling transactions at 89.22%. Mobile and Internet instruments grabbed a respective share of 5.87% and 4.91%.

In terms of the type of services offered, Shaparak reported that 81.88% of all transactions during the fourth month of the year were aimed at purchasing goods and services. Transactions conducted with the purpose of paying bills and purchasing mobile phone recharges followed with a 12.82% share while transactions undertaken to check bank account balances came last with a 5.29% share.