Director of Central Bank Payment System said that connecting to online international payment systems is our priority for the current new year. He added that 30% of the payment terminals in shops have the necessary capability to accept international payment systems.

After Iran’s nuclear deal agreement and lifting of the nuclear-related sanctions, many are waiting to see what might happen next. “ In Central Bank of Iran, we have started series of talks with two international payment systems, JCB from Japan and UPI from China. These two companies have a good penetration rate in Asia, Europe and especially south-east Asia,” said Davoud Mohammadbeigi director of Central Bank Payment System. “ Central Bank of Iran would always pay attention to two key factors. First is that these payment systems should be low cost for Iranian customers. The second key factor is that the process of transactions should be done via our local payment systems. We worked really hard to develop our domestic payment system and we want to support our local services.

International payment systems have their own standards which local payment systems should adapt to it if they want to connect with these systems. “ Last year local automated payments system Shetab (Interbank Information Transfer Network) had processed 13.5 Billion transactions worth 1,945,000 Billion Toman (Nearly 561 Billion Dollars). This number represents 1.5 times of Iran’s GDP,” told Mohammabeigi. “Also, SATNA (Real-time gross settlement systems) system processed 8 Million transactions which is worth 5,500,000 Billion Toman (Nearly 1.6 Trillion Dollars). PAYA (Automatic Clearing House) system has processed 1.7 Billion transactions worth 1.2 Sextillion Toman (Too big to calculate). Last year in comparison to the year before that, Shetab, PAYA, SATNA, and Shaparak had 25% in average growth rate in terms of a number of transactions, and 17% in average in terms of money transfer. The exact growth rate in terms of number of transactions and money value is stated below:

• Shetab: 29% In terms of a number of transaction, 17% in terms of money value.
• Shaparak: 19% In terms of a number of transaction, 26% in terms of money value.
• SATNA: 22% In terms of a number of transaction, 25% in terms of money value.
• PAYA: 32% In terms of a number of transaction, 1% in terms of money value. Low growth rate in this section is because of the money transfer limitation. The limit is 50 Million Toman(14.5 Thousand Dollars). Central Bank decided that money transfers more than this figure should be done in SATNA system.

Mohammadbeigi also talked about SWIFT, which was opened after 4 years. “ SWIFT is open but our banks are working with the brokers to start over their relationships with the foreign bank,” told Mohammadbeigi.

Shetab (Interbank Information Transfer Network) system is an electronic banking clearance and automated payments system used in Iran. The system was introduced in 2002 with the intention of creating a uniform backbone for the Iranian banking system to handle ATM, POS, and other card-based transactions.