Buna (payment system)

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Buna, known until 2020 as the Arab Regional Payment System (ARPS), is a multinational financial market infrastructure that allows payment versus payment (PvP) settlement of transactions in currencies of the Middle East and North Africa region. It is operated by the Arab Regional Payments Clearing and Settlement Organization (ARPCSO), a company based in Abu Dhabi and fully owned by the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF). [1]

Contents

Overview

The AMF initiated the ARPS project in 2018, with aim to support economic and financial integration between Arab countries and expand trade and investment activities with their global trading partners. [2]

The Buna foreign-exchange (FX) settlement service first went live on 6 November 2023, when its PvP functionality was used by Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and Jordan Ahli Bank. This initial service supported FX transactions in any pair of six currencies: four regional currencies, the Emirati dirham (AED), Egyptian pound (EGP), Jordanian dinar (JOD) and Saudi riyal (SAR), and two global currencies, the euro (EUR) and US dollar (USD). [1]

As of end-2024, Buna participants included banks and central banks from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Yemen together with the AMF. [3]

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References

  1. 1 2 "Banks go live with the Buna's Payment versus Payment (PvP) Service, providing safer settlement of foreign exchange (FX)". Arab Monetary Fund. 6 November 2023.
  2. "The Organization". buna.co. Retrieved 26 December 2024.
  3. "List of Buna Participants". buna.co. Retrieved 26 December 2024.