Transactions were down 9.5% in value and 1.51% in volume compared to the month earlier when the company processed 2.8 billion transactions valued at 4,839.2 trillion rials ($18.61 billion)
Year-on-year basis transactions rose 23.87% and 73.61% in volume and value, respectively. Upsurge in value was due largely to increase in inflation during the course of the year.
The average goods and services Consumer Price Index in the 12-month period ending Nov. 20 increased 29% compared to the corresponding period last year, according to data released by the Statistical Center of Iran.
Consumer inflation for the month under review (Oct. 22-Nov. 20) was up 46.4% compared to the similar month last year.
When adjusted for inflation the real value of transactions registered 13.94% decline on a monthly basis and 18.56% rise YOY.
Annual increase in the number of transactions could be linked also to the higher number of payment instruments, namely point-of-sale machines and internet payment gateways.
Payment Services
Shaparak offers services via internet, cellphone and point of sale (POS) devices. With more than 11.93 million payment instruments operating in the reviewed month, the total number of instruments showed 1.83% growth compared to the month before.
The rise was mainly attributed to internet payment gateways that grew 5.24% to reach 1.41 million. The number of point of sale (POS) devices in shops and mobile platforms rose 1.49% and 0.79% during the month, respectively.
In terms of market share, POS devices were at the top with 76.25%. Mobile instruments came next with 11.92% followed by internet payment gateways at 11.83%.
POS devices accounted for 90.32% of the total number of transactions processing 2.49 billion transactions worth 3,896.5 trillion rials ($14.98 billion) in the month.
Online gateways were next with 5.66% of the total number of transactions and mobile instruments represented 4.02%.
In terms of services offered, figures show 86.92% of transactions were related to “buying goods and services”.
Buying cellphone recharges and paying bills accounted for 8.39% of all processed transactions during the month. More than 4.69% of the transactions were conducted for checking account balances.
Penetration
As for the penetration rate of payment tools, the report said there were 1,965 instruments per 10,000 adults (above 18 years old) in the month.
POS devices had the highest and internet instruments the lowest penetration rates with 1,498 and 232 instruments per 10,000 adults, respectively.
Tehran province was first with the most POS terminals. There were 1.88 million active POS devices in the metropolis – up 1.08% rise compared to the month before.
This was followed by Khorasan Razavi with 700,349 and Isfahan 631,258 active devices. Ilam Province with 64,995 devices had the lowest number of POS devices.