Based on the monthly report released by Shaparak on its website, the transactions declined 2.36% and 4.26% in terms of volume and value, respectively, compared to a month earlier.
However, the volume and value registered 24.87% and 2.34% increase, respectively, compared to the same period last year when more than 1.84 billion transactions valued at 2,448 trillion rials ($21.38 billion) were processed.
Annual hike in the value of transactions is ascribed mainly to rising inflation as well as increase in the number of receiving instruments and debit cards plus growing tendency among the people to use electronic payment tools as opposed to cash, according to Financial Tribune.
Factoring out the effect of inflation, the figures are presented in real value terms.
Accordingly, the real value of transactions fell 4.73% on monthly basis and declined 20.07% annually.
Shaparak offers services via Internet, cellphone and point of sale (POS) devices.
According to the report, the number of online payment gateways experienced a 5.92% increase compared with the earlier month and had a market share of 10.46%.
Mobile instruments for receiving payments grew 1.85% in volume on a monthly basis while holding a market share of 12.36%.
POS devices in shops registered 1.02% rise during the one-month period, holding the largest share of the market with 77.18%.
On the whole, the number of instruments for receiving payments registered a 1.62% increase. In terms of services offered by Shaparak, data show that, “buying goods and services” topped the list, accounting for 83.73% of the transactions.
“Buying cellphone recharges and paying bills” were next on the list with 11.59% share of all processed transactions during the month under review.
More than 4.68 % of the transactions were related to ‘checking account balances’.
“Buying goods and services” accounted for 97.3% of the total value of transactions, and “buying cellphone recharges and paying bills” accounted for 2.7%.
Penetration
As for the penetration rate of payment tools the report said there were 1,661 instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old) during the month.
POS terminals held the lion's share with 1,282 instruments per 10,000 adults.
Likewise, online gateways had the lowest penetration with 173 instruments per 10,000 adults.
Tehran Province ranked first as the province with the highest number of POS terminals with more than 1.60 million active POS devices – up 1.13% in one month.
This was followed by Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan provinces, with 585,595 and 537,624 active devices, respectively.
As usual, the lowest number of POS devices was in Ilam Province with 55,982 devices.