Iran Digital Payments Exceed $16b in 1 Month

EghtesadOnline: Close to 1.84 billion transactions worth more than 2.44 quadrillion rials ($16.94 billion) were registered by Shaparak, Iran’s payment settlement network, in the calendar month that ended on September 22.

News ID: ۷۸۴۲۱۳

17 October 2018

The latest report disclosed by the Central Bank of Iran-affiliated entity on its website shows that the volume and value of transactions registered a decrease of 0.86% and an increase of 3.51% respectively compared with the previous month.

Compared with the same month of last year, the number of transactions showed an increase of 25% while the value was 59.12% higher.

While a part of the rise in the rial value of transactions was due to inflation, other reasons behind the growth in both volume and value were identified by Shaparak as rise in the number of payment receiving instruments, a rise in the number of bank cardholders and a growing tendency toward employing a variety of payment methods as opposed to cash, Financial Tribune reported.

By adjusting for inflation, the rial value of Shaparak transactions went down by 2.40% and up 21.11% during the month under review compared with the previous month and the same month the year before respectively.

Share of Instruments

According to the Shaparak monthly report, all instruments for receiving payments except for POS devices in shops, namely internet and mobile instruments, posted monthly growth and brought the total growth of instruments to 0.22%.

During the month ending Sep. 22, the market share of POS devices stood at 77.25% while mobile and Internet instruments held a respective share of 12.28% and 10.47%.

In terms of transactions, POS devices boasted a towering 88.76% share while mobile and internet instruments stood at 6.12% and 5.12%.

Number of Errors

As the number of transactions declined month-on-month, the number of errors increased. The total number of successful transactions fell by 0.86% but unsuccessful transactions increased by 6.08% compared to the month before.

The total number of transactions, both successful and unsuccessful, stood at 2.03 billion during the month; of which 9.31% were unsuccessful. The number of unsuccessful transactions amounted to 189.21 million -- up 6.08% compared to the month before.

User errors again accounted for a majority of unsuccessful transactions at 80.41%, but errors on the sending end (the bank) or the Shetab interbank system–grabbed a 17.58% share to signify a 59.86% monthly surge.

Errors on the receiving end – the switch of the payment services provider – registered a 13.96% monthly decrease, but had an overall share of 1.2%.

Share of PSPs

Statistics show that Behpardakht Mellat was the top payment service provider during the month, in terms of both number and value of transactions. The provider had a 21.08% and 24.73% share in number and value of transactions respectively.

Next on the list of top providers in terms of number of transactions during the period was Saman Electeronic Payment Co. with 17.84%, followed by Asan Pardakht Persian Company’s 15.28% and Parsian E-Commerce Company 14.05%.

In terms of value, Saman Electeronic Payment Co. registered the second top share with 13.92%, followed by Iran Kish Credit Card Co. with 13.63%, and Sadad Electronic Payment Co. 9.92%.

Analysis show that Bank Mellat outperformed rivals significantly among the receiving banks during the month, registering a 25.42% and 24.79% share in the total number and value of transactions respectively.

In terms of number of transactions, Bank Melli and Bank Keshavarzi were next on the list, having a 9.9% and 7.76% share, while Bank Saderat at 11.01% and Bank Melli at 10.99% had the second and third highest share in the total value of transactions.