Buna’s cross-border payment to enhance investments

Buna, the UAE-based cross-border payment system, will add currencies from India, China, Pakistan and African and European countries in 2024-25.

Fahad Al Turki, chairman of the Arab Regional Payments Clearing and Settlement Organisation (Buna), said on the first day of the World Governments Summit in Dubai said, “We continue to offer innovative services and also launched a number of services such as instant payment. We are working to implement a number of initiatives to link the Buna platform and other payment methods from other countries including China, India and Pakistan in addition to continental payment systems in Europe and Africa."

Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, Minister of State for Financial Affairs, said Buna’s cross-border payment solution will enhance investments among Arab countries and encourage the use of Arab currencies in transactions.

He added that this platform has a high level of compliance to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism, and monitoring such activities.

Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, First Deputy Ruler of Dubai, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the UAE, attended the official recognition of Buna for its achievements.

The system is connected to 108 live banks across 14 countries while additional 105-plus banks are in the process of onboarding the platform. Currently, six currencies including four from the Arab region – UAE dirham, Saudi riyal, Egyptian pound and Jordanian dinar – and the US dollar and European single currency euro are part of the platform, processing real-time funds transfer cost-effectively.

Buna covers payments of government-to-government, government-to-citizens, individuals-to-individuals and remittances. The platform is currently processing thousands of payments every month.