How does a CliQ payment work?
CliQ lives inside the customer’s banking app or wallet. Each user can register an alias, such as a chosen name, a mobile number or an email address, and link it to an account. A payer then sends money to that alias or to an IBAN, and the app shows the recipient’s name before the transfer is confirmed. Banks confirm with a passcode or a one-time password sent by text message. The money reaches the recipient’s account instantly, at any hour, including weekends.
For merchants, the key service is request to pay. The merchant sends a payment request for a set amount to the customer’s alias, the request appears in the customer’s banking app, and the customer accepts or rejects it. If the customer accepts, the amount is transferred instantly to the merchant’s account. CliQ also supports return payments, where a recipient sends a payment back to the sender without starting a new transfer, and QR payments at shops.
JoPACC clears CliQ payments, and settlement participants settle through their accounts at the Real-Time Gross Settlement system owned and operated by the Central Bank of Jordan. Payments are in Jordanian dinars only, between accounts in Jordan. JoPACC sets a maximum of JOD 10,000 per transaction, and each bank may set lower or daily limits.
Why does CliQ matter for merchants?
CliQ is growing fast. JoPACC reports that transactions doubled in 2025, from 83.95 million to 167.92 million, and value rose 65% to JOD 19.97 billion. The average payment fell from JOD 144.1 to JOD 118.9, a sign that people use CliQ for everyday purchases, not only for large transfers. Registered users grew 27.3% to 2.13 million, and Jordan News, citing JoPACC, reported 2.22 million users and 53.29 million transactions in the first quarter of 2026 alone. Users aged 18 to 30 are the largest group, at 37.3%.
CliQ also reaches wallet users. JoPACC upgraded JoMoPay, the mobile wallet switch, to the same ISO 20022 messaging standard, so payments move between banks and wallets. Merchant acceptance is spreading: Network International Jordan became the first acquirer without its own accounts to accept CliQ by dynamic QR code on its point-of-sale devices. QR is still small: JoPACC counted 186,800 CliQ QR payments in 2025, a tiny share of all CliQ purchases.
What can go wrong?
Most failed CliQ payments are flow problems rather than declines. A customer may ignore or reject a request to pay, enter the wrong alias, or hit a per-transaction or daily limit set by their bank. A request that is never approved leaves the order pending, so set a clear expiry and remind the customer.
Access is the second constraint. Direct participation in CliQ is open only to banks, so businesses connect through a bank or merchant acquirer that offers request to pay. Bank Al Etihad, for example, exposes CliQ payment requests to registered merchants through an API secured with OAuth2 and mutual TLS. CliQ is domestic: it moves dinars between accounts in Jordan, and the international CliQ service JoPACC launched in January 2026 handles incoming transfers only.
Refunds need their own process. A merchant can return a received payment or send a new CliQ transfer to the customer, but rules vary by bank; AJIB, for example, allows a return within six days. There is no card-style chargeback on a CliQ payment, so clear order and delivery records are the main defence in a dispute.
How would Omno handle CliQ?
Omno would treat CliQ as an asynchronous pay-in. The hosted checkout, or the merchant’s own checkout through Direct Links, would collect the customer’s alias, a provider or bank partner holding a CliQ connection would send the request to pay, and the order would stay pending until the final status arrives by webhook, which is the record to trust for fulfilment. The merchant’s routing rules would choose between providers. In the hosted checkout, if the chosen provider were unavailable or rejected the request, the payment would move to the next provider in the rule until one accepts. Payouts would go only through providers that support JOD transfers to the recipient’s account, and the routing-decision log would record which provider handled each payment.