JoPACC Celebrates 2 Years of Launching the Instant Payment System (CliQ)

From mid-2020 until today, CliQ- JoPACC’s instant payment system - has made a significant impact on its users’ lives, allowing instant transfers between bank accounts in Jordan, both individual and legal accounts, and between bank accounts and mobile wallets simultaneously. With more than (300,000) users, JoPACC celebrates the 2nd anniversary of launching CliQ.

JoPACC is constantly developing CliQ by adopting the latest developments in the FinTech industry, driven by the needs of financial users. CliQ has introduced advanced features during the past two years, besides enabling instant digital transfers between financial accounts. These features include “Request-to-Pay”, which allows CliQ users to send a payment request of a specific amount directly to the receiver and gives them the option to accept the request and make the transfer accordingly or reject it. They further include the “Return Payment” feature, which enables recipients to return transfers fully or partially. Moreover, CliQ recently facilitated “QR Code Payments on POS Devices,” allowing CliQ users to pay merchants instantly by scanning a QR code that is generated on the merchant’s point of sale (POS) device from their mobile bank application. Many merchants in the Kingdom have started offering this payment service to their customers in shops, cafes, and other places. Through CliQ, the process of sending and receiving money instantly, anywhere, and anytime through mobile devices has become possible. This has contributed to expanding the uptake of digital payment services, which in turn led to an increase in digital liquidity in the Kingdom.

Since its launch, and in addition to the aforementioned features, CliQ has introduced the use of an alias instead of a bank account number or IBAN for making transfers, thereby accelerating the transfer process. Aliases are unique nicknames linked to their owner’s national number, making it impossible for another user to register the same alias. Users can register more than one alias for the same bank account and use the same alias for several financial accounts, whether bank accounts or mobile wallets. Other competitive features include the payee confirmation, where the recipient’s name is presented to the sender before making transfers, thus reducing the possibility of sending wrong transfers. Credit confirmation is another feature, which entails sending a notification to the sender once the payment is deposited into the recipient’s account. CliQ services are also available around the clock.

CliQ is owned and operated by JoPACC. Currently, 19 banks in the Kingdom have connected to CliQ, and all offer the service free of charge to their clients and provide support to ensure the seamless use of the service. JoPACC has recently upgraded JoMoPay, the Mobile Payment Switch in Jordan, to operate according to the same ISO standard that is adopted by the CliQ system (ISO 20022), which enabled instant money transfers between the two systems. This step has contributed to achieving more interoperability between financial institutions in the Kingdom and is well aligned with the Central Bank’s and JoPACC’s vision to achieve digital financial inclusion in Jordan.