JoMoPay, ProgressSoft’s Model on Mobile Payments Interoperability in Jordan

Amman, January 8, 2017

Launched in 2014, JoMoPay has become the first national switching infrastructure, with the purpose of enabling interoperability between mobile payment services in the MENA region, placing Jordan at the forefront of financial inclusion efforts both in the region and globally.

Towards the end of 2012, the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) issued a request for proposal to build a switch for mobile payments. After evaluating several international bidders, ProgressSoft won the contract, proposing to roll out its Mobile Payment Switching and Clearing solution (PS-mpClear) under the brand name JoMoPay, an abbreviation for Jordan Mobile Payments. ProgressSoft's successful experience in real-time payments and clearing systems with more than 350 banks, in 24 countries and 9 Central Banks including CBJ, helped in making this decision process smoother.

ProgressSoft made sure to deliver all the features that CBJ needed to have a complete platform that responds to all its needs, including the switching, the clearing and the regulatory roles.

PS-mpClear supports processing and switching mobile financial and non-financial transactions in STP basis and routing messages between multiple mobile payment service providers ensuring interoperability.

PS-mpClear empowers CBJ to regulate mobile payments and the key participants by monitoring the cash flow and overseeing all the transactions, including micro payments. With this approach, CBJ oversees the financial stability of the provider(s) of the mobile payment services and assure their compliance with its regulations.

ProgressSoft's PS-mpClear fully commands its switching, clearing and regulatory roles. Some of the features of those roles include single financial transaction switching and processing, clearing of transactions between different financial institutions and integration with the CBJ's RTGS. In addition, it is offered to the whole population, banked and unbanked to join the mobile payment eco-system and it operates on a 24/7 basis.

Monitoring over micro payments can take place through PS-mpClear, allowing collection of statistical MIS data for micro finance. By offering mobile payment options to unbanked users, micro-financing can extend to that substantial segment. Financial inclusion of low-income groups is attained. This ultimately creates a positive impact on the economy and the GDP.

In terms of its regulatory role, PS-mpClear enables CBJ to hold a national record for each single user and mobile account information. Furthermore, it enforces debit caps, monitoring and tracking of mobile payment transactions, mobile payment transaction limits, number of wallets and accounts per user type and much more.