Retail Payment Systems
Retail Payments are payment operations exchanged between members of the payment system through a central clearing system by pooling all credit and debit transactions carried by each member and settling the final amount.
Accordingly, any transaction shall pass through three phases, respectively: clearing, netting, and settlement.
In this type, transactions are large-volume payments of a relatively low value. This type of payments is called “Bulk Payments”. Upon each exchange period, a special file is produced between credit and debit members. The sum of net position of credit members shall equal the sum of net position of debit members regardless of the case.
Retail payment systems in Jordan represented as follows:
Electronic Cheques Clearing System (ECC) Click here
Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment System (eFAWATEERcom) Click here
Retail Payment Instruments
The followings are the most prominent payment instruments in the Jordanian Market:
First: Cheques
The Central Bank of Jordan and operating banks in the Kingdom worked on developing traditional payment methods by shifting from paper to electronic payments through the use of modern technological means. This reflects clearly the major role the banks perform in developing various aspects of economic life.
Currently, cheque performs important role in payment and substitutes the use of money in transactions. It becomes an important part in banks operations as it enables users to withdraw and transfer deposits from banks in addition to implement foreign exchange contracts.
Cheque is the most common commercial paper used in business payments because of its characters and the legal protection it offered for customers dealing with it.
The Central Bank of Jordan has established technical and security specifications for cheques in order to reduce its fraudulent. These specifications made the fraudulent process difficult and enabled banks employees to detect any cheque fraudulent easily. It also raised the effectiveness of exchanging cheques by unifying data sites and increasing customers’ confidence in the banking system which would be reflected in their use for reliable payment methods.
Second: payment cards
Payment cards are used in the Kingdom and vary between prepaid, debit, and credit cards. The debit cards, including prepaid cards, issuance are limited to banks operating in the Kingdom only while it is allowed for financial institutions to issue credit cards.
Retail Payment Channels
Primarily, payment channel is the process or mechanism that enables the final beneficiary to conduct payment and fund transfer operations. These channels vary between electronic and traditional channels provided by banks- such as Banks branches, offices, ATMs, internet banking, mobile banking and channels which are provided by payment service providers such as Point of Sales POS and agents of payment services in addition to others.