Buna is the Arab Monetary Fund's answer to slow, costly correspondent banking: a multi-currency cross-border platform letting banks across the Arab region and beyond settle in regional and international currencies, in near real time.
Buna is a cross-border, multi-currency payment platform owned by the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF), operated through the Arab Regional Payments Clearing and Settlement Organization. It launched in February 2020 with one goal: let financial institutions and central banks across the Arab region — and counterparties beyond it — send and receive payments in both regional and international currencies, without leaning entirely on the slow, expensive correspondent-banking chain.
The problem Buna attacks is structural. A payment from one Arab country to another has historically often routed through a correspondent bank in New York or London, adding cost, delay, and opacity. Buna gives the region a shared rail and a shared rulebook, so an in-region payment can clear and settle without that detour.
Buna is AMF infrastructure — a regional public-good rail, not a commercial bank product.
Settles in regional currencies (AED, SAR, EGP, JOD and more) plus international currencies (USD, EUR).
In-region payments need not route through a US or European correspondent, reducing cost and delay.
A platform-level screening and compliance layer underpins trust for international counterparties.
Buna supports a set of regional and international currencies for settlement — the regional currencies have grown over time and include the AED, SAR, EGP and JOD, alongside international currencies such as the USD and EUR. Participating banks hold accounts on the platform and settle obligations across it, governed by a common set of operating rules and compliance standards.
Crucially, Buna is built on ISO 20022 and applies a centralised compliance and screening layer — AML/CFT and sanctions screening at the platform level — which is part of how it gives counterparties outside the region the confidence to participate. It is a regional infrastructure, not a domestic instant rail: think correspondent-banking replacement, not consumer P2P.
| Buna | AFAQ (GCC-RTGS) | |
|---|---|---|
| Owner | Arab Monetary Fund | The six GCC national central banks |
| Scope | Arab region + international counterparties | GCC member states only |
| Currencies | Multiple regional + international | GCC domestic currencies, fixed FX |
| Best thought of as | Regional correspondent-banking replacement | Gulf cross-border RTGS |
Buna and AFAQ are easy to confuse and easy to conflate — both move money across borders in the region — but their scope and ownership differ. Buna is Arab Monetary Fund infrastructure spanning the broader Arab region and open to international counterparties. AFAQ (GCC-RTGS) is owned by the six GCC central banks and settles strictly between Gulf states.
If you run cross-border flows touching the Arab region, Buna is the rail that can take an in-region corridor off the correspondent-banking chain — cheaper, faster, more transparent. For treasurers and PSPs, the question is whether your partner banks are Buna participants and whether your priority corridors are covered. Membership and corridor coverage, not the technology, are the real gating factors.
Be precise about what Buna is not: it is not a domestic instant scheme, not a consumer wallet rail, and not a substitute for SWIFT globally. It is a regional clearing and settlement platform. Volumes are still modest relative to global correspondent banking, so treat it as a strengthening corridor option rather than a finished default — verify live currency and participant coverage for your specific corridor before you design around it.
The strategic point: alongside AFAQ for the Gulf and the ISO 20022 cross-border migration globally, Buna is part of a deliberate regional effort to reduce dependence on US-dollar correspondent infrastructure. If that matters to your risk or cost picture, it is worth a real evaluation.