Members News

With its high-level objective envisioning the provision of a “Comprehensive and innovative financial ecosystem benefiting all and contributing to digital financial inclusion and digital economy in Jordan,” the Jordan Payments and Clearing Company (JoPACC) announced its new quadrennial strategy for (2023-2026). The strategy builds upon the company’s previous strategy for the years 2019-2022, which aimed to enhance the digital financial infrastructure in Jordan and digitize financial services, streamlining them and increasing their reach, adoption, and usage, in an endeavor to increase financial inclusion in Jordan.

The new strategy is aligned with the national objectives, the most notable of which are the National Digital Transformation Strategy and the Economic Modernization Vision. The strategy encompasses six pillars, three of which are vertical, reflecting JoPACC’s core areas of work and focusing mainly on enhancing digital liquidity, introducing and expanding digital rails, and enabling FinTech innovation. The other three are cross-cutting pillars and intersect with the vertical pillars’ areas of focus, covering governance, compliance, risk management, cyber resilience, safety, and consumer protection; and data analytics and knowledge production and dissemination, in addition to the advocacy and outreach approach that JoPACC is adopting to establish an effective dialogue between all stakeholders and obtain their buy-in for enhancing digital financial inclusion in the Kingdom.

The drawing-up of this strategy followed several stages, the first of which involved conducting an impact assessment of JoPACC’s first strategy, with the participation of all stakeholders, to obtain a comprehensive understanding of its areas of impact and potential for development. JoPACC further conducted quantitative and qualitative research on key market concepts and digital financial services adoption. It also played a vital role in developing the Economic Modernization Vision of the Kingdom, providing it with a comprehensive understanding of the financial ecosystem and national directions. Furthermore, JoPACC conducted a SWOT analysis to identify the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Considering all findings, JoPACC laid the groundwork for its second strategy and followed that up with consultations with the sector to consider key actors’ perspectives and acquire their support for its strategic direction.

As part of its new strategy, JoPACC will maintain continuous and open communication with the sector throughout all of its projects and initiatives, which constitutes the cornerstone for all other pillars of the strategy. JoPACC also devoted considerable attention to promoting innovation in financial technology, which is one of the new pillars that has been added to its strategy and which will be clearly manifested by the official launch of its JOIN Fincubator coming soon this year.

Under the umbrella of its first strategy, JoPACC launched cutting-edge digital financial systems and services and enhanced the features of the available services (such as launching the CliQ instant payment system, upgrading the JoMoPay system for mobile payments, introducing aliases in money transfers and enabling QR code payments to merchants). Moving forward, this strategy seeks to foster innovation in digital financial services and increase the uptake of digital payments in the local market in collaboration with the financial sector and strategic partners. JoPACC also plans to launch the digital financial ID to enable remote and digital onboarding to financial services, making it easier for users to benefit from a plethora of financial services remotely and eliminating the hassle of visiting financial institutions.

Through this strategy and its holistic vision, JoPACC is committed to enhancing digital financial inclusion in Jordan, which brings significant benefits to the economy, the most prominent of which is saving time, effort, and cost for all stakeholders of the financial ecosystem, individuals and institutions alike.

Download the strategy here

The Ministry of Local Administration launched its Intranet portal that is designed and developed by Echo Technology as an advanced way to manage its employee’s services.

The EB Intranet is designed and developed to provide companies and organizations with one-point access to information and help streamline the business processes/workflow while improving communication and collaboration among employees with high level of security ensuring a modern and effective working environment

The system provides a dashboard for simple insights tracking, in addition to  providing employee eservices such as vacations, leaves, and salary slip requests, advanced file management, and more to facilitate business workflow management

Hadhramout Commercial Bank (HCB) is the first universal bank to open its headquarters in Hadhramout. The bank will provide commercial, retail, investment, corporate, digital, and private banking products and services through ICS BANKS Universal banking’s holistic software suite. ICSFS will enable the bank to provide the most innovative digital products and services to its customers, to support the bank’s mission in becoming a leading universal banking institution in Yemen. Hadhramout Commercial Bank will be utilising ICSFS’ Digital Banking excellence and open banking architecture.

ProgressSoft and ALRajhi Bank Jordan signed an agreement to launch ProgressSoft’s Payments Hub Platform featuring seamless integrations with the local market infrastructure, a suite of Swift services including Swift gpi, Swift Go, and ISO 20022 migration for full-fledged CBPR+ payments management, and much more.

Telecom Egypt, the first integrated operator of communications and information technology services in Egypt, in cooperation with Huawei Technologies, the leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, announced the implementation of the first eco-friendly, integrated solution to provide mobile networks via utilizing environmentally friendly tower made of Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP), with wireless availability.

Through this cooperation, Telecom Egypt will become the first operator in Egypt and Africa to install this green tower which will serve as the optimum steel alternative, which causes high emissions of carbon dioxide. The tower is approximately 18m high, with a special camouflage fence made of environmentally friendly materials, supported by integrated wireless access solutions and a green solar energy system. The tower is characterized by its high resistance in severe environmental conditions, such as corrosion due to the exposure to chemicals and high temperatures.

The Managing Director and CEO of Telecom Egypt, Adel Hamed, said that the implementation of this type of mobile site in Egypt is unprecedented and has also underscored the efforts done by all those in charge of the project, and their capability of implementing the entire site in a timely manner and a systematic way, as per the best international quality standards that have to do with the green concept solutions.

Mr. Adel further explained that Telecom Egypt’s green external sites also depend on modern technologies for wireless access devices, such as the technology of antennas integrated with signal amplifiers, which contribute to reducing the energy consumption of one site by about 40%, if compared to traditional sites.

According to Mr. Adel, these modern technologies also contribute to improving the signal quality by about 20%, when compared to regular antennas, which will further result in reducing the number of stations to be installed, enhancing the preservation of the environment, and hence achieving the aimed-for sustainable development.

He also added that Telecom Egypt relies on state-of-the-art versions of operating software that support the latest features, pertinent to energy saving, such as the feature of turning off signal amplifiers for some frequencies during low load hours, which helps in reducing energy consumption by an average of 24%.

Jim Liu, CEO of Huawei Egypt confirmed that the company dedicated great attention to developing the infrastructure of Information and Communication Technology in Egypt which is why they have joined hands with Telecom Egypt, the leader in the telecommunications market in Egypt and the Middle East.

He added that Huawei is keen on harnessing all the necessary, innovative technologies to save energy to build a sustainable future, which certainly generates zero carbon emissions. He also pointed out that recent studies have shown that FRP poles produce 43% less carbon dioxide emissions, compared to steel, and reduce E2E energy consumption by nearly half for manufacturers and related transportation.

He also explained that energy solutions for green outdoor sites depend on passive cooling, which eliminates the need for air conditioning and thus leads to a 47% reduction in energy consumption compared to sites with indoor rooms for devices. He also clarified that the process depends on the integration of solar energy with the main electricity network, with relative dependence on green energy, namely the solar one, as the solar panels will provide about 2 kilowatts, which will lead to a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by 20%.

It is worth mentioning that the goal of developing an environmentally friendly green site is to use smart materials instead of the traditional ones that were previously used in mobile terminals. For instance, reverting to FRP in manufacturing leads to minimizing steel sections up to 95%, which results in minimal pollution to the environment. Moreover, it is smarter to use integrated Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment, which has bandwidth carrier dynamic shutdown and time domain deep code shutdown, which will reduce power consumption by about 24 % in a low traffic period.

ProgressSoft’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Michael Wakileh, looks back on an impactful 2022 and anticipates what is to come for all stakeholders in 2023. https://bit.ly/3YNsoYG

Dear partners, colleagues, and stakeholders,

The world is in times of turbulence: climatic, economic, and financial, with the situation foreshadowing mixed fortunes for many industries and economies in 2023 and beyond.

But as wise Peter Drucker once said, “the greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, it is to act with yesterday’s logic.”

We may not be certain of what is to come for the financial industry, however, we can choose to adapt our practices to not only survive the rain but use it to grow. With that, I must highlight the importance of letting go of outdated solutions that aim to resolve new challenges.

The demand for user-friendly and portable financial services will not wait for any technology or institution, so we must keep moving, keep growing, and keep persevering in the face of massive change and uncertainty. This is where we are headed.

As to where we have been, an eventful year to say the least with a lot of collaboration and active change that we were honored to witness and be a part of in the financial sector.

We commenced the year with the Advancement of Digital Currency in Interoperability Award by the Digital Currency Advisory Committee in Washington D.C. recognizing our Central Bank Digital Currency solution and its ability to revolutionize the future of interoperability in cross-border financial ecosystems. We collaborated with tens of central banks on the topic, resulting in valuable discussions and transformative decisions that will impact generations to come. We are proud of our progress in this domain as one of the world’s first innovators of CBDC.

Throughout the year, we discussed, signed, and launched projects catering to governments, regulatory body national strategies, and banking digital transformation initiatives. We celebrated major upgrades, successful migrations, first-of-their-kind implementations and big milestones for us and for our clients.

We were also major exhibitors at some of the most prominent events for the financial industry in Athens, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Kigali, and Washington D.C. It is part of our commitment to being among our clientele across the 5 continents and ahead of the latest updates in the global financial sector.

Before long, we were celebrating yet another prominent milestone in our domain. Our Payments Hub Platform was among the first 3 solutions worldwide to be awarded with the SWIFT Compatible Application Payments Label, marking the beginning of our contribution to the evolution in global payments and the financial industry’s ISO 20022 migration period.

Our successes remain incomplete without our corporate social responsibility. In 2022, we continued to cultivate a culture centered around giving back to the community and environment through several green initiatives, care packages, and health awareness sessions. But above all, we massively contributed to elevating education and empowering a new generation of students through fruitful collaborations with the private and public sector. We hope to see that impact grow in 2023.

Finally, after 33 years of guiding over 370 financial institutions in their digital transformation journeys, we now recognize a major shift in our scope of work: a new intersection of services among financial institutions, mobile network operators, fintechs and exchange houses. Accordingly, a major announcement by ProgressSoft is in store for 2023, and it will be an exciting journey that we look forward to pursuing with our clients and the entirety of the financial sector.

Lastly, my sincere gratitude goes to our colleagues in our 6 offices across the globe for their diligent work. Our outcomes will continue to leave a mark on nations, institutions, and citizens – and it is with great thanks to all our stakeholders that we sustain this impact so wonderfully.

Wishing you a happy 2023.

Sincerely,

Michael Wakileh