Buna: cross-border instant payments for the Arab region

Buna is the cross-border payment system for the Arab region, operated by the Arab Monetary Fund and launched in December 2020, and it lets a bank in one Arab country pay a bank in another Arab country in real time, in several currencies, settled in central bank money. It is a multi-currency system, supporting Arab currencies such as the UAE dirham, Saudi riyal, Egyptian pound and Jordanian dinar, as well as the US dollar and the euro, and it uses ISO 20022 messages, so a payment carries rich data and can be tracked. Buna is the first regional system of its kind, and it is the model for how regions can connect their payment systems without going through correspondent banks in New York or London. Source: Arab Monetary Fund, Buna. Why Buna exists is that cross-border payments inside the Arab region were slow, expensive and opaque, even though the countries trade heavily with each other. A payment from the UAE to Egypt could take three days, pass through two correspondent banks, lose charges at each hop, and arrive with no remittance data, so the beneficiary could not reconcile it. Buna answers by letting the two banks settle directly through Buna, in real time, with the full ISO 20022 data, so the payment arrives the same day, the charges are known upfront, and the beneficiary can reconcile automatically. The system exists because the region wanted its own settlement, in its own currencies, without depending on correspondent banks outside the region. The parties are the debtor and creditor banks, which must both be Buna participants, their central banks, which hold the settlement accounts, and the Arab Monetary Fund, which operates Buna. The payment is settled in central bank money, which means the sending bank central bank debits the sending bank, and the receiving bank central bank credits the receiving bank, and the exchange rate, where the currencies differ, is applied transparently. The customer is the reason for the payment, and the customer experience is the product: a payment that arrives the same day, with known charges, and with remittance data that lets the beneficiary reconcile it. How it works is shown by a worked example. A company in Dubai owes a supplier in Cairo EGP 1,200,000 for textiles, and pays on a Monday at 10:00 through its bank, which is a Buna participant. The Dubai bank sends the payment in ISO 20022 format through Buna, the payment is settled in central bank money, the Cairo bank receives it, and the supplier account is credited EGP 1,200,000 at 10:05, five minutes later, with the invoice number in the remittance data. Without Buna the same payment would have travelled through correspondent banks, taken two to three days, lost charges at each hop, and arrived with truncated remittance data, so the supplier would have reconciled it manually. The difference is the direct settlement and the full data. On success the payment is settled the same day, the charges are known, and the beneficiary reconciles automatically, which is the whole commercial value of the system. On failure the payment can be rejected, for example because the beneficiary bank is not a Buna participant, the currency is not supported for that corridor, or the compliance screening holds it, and then the payment must travel by correspondent banking instead, which is slower and more expensive. The recovery is to tell the customer upfront whether the corridor is covered by Buna, and to offer the correspondent route with its real time and cost, because a promise of same-day settlement that becomes three days is a complaint, not a delay. The data in a Buna payment is the debtor and creditor identification, the amount and currency, the ISO 20022 message, the remittance information and the charges. The remittance data is the field that matters most for business payments, because a supplier that receives the invoice number can reconcile automatically, while a supplier that receives only an amount must match it manually. A BA must specify the corridors covered, the currencies supported, the charge disclosure, the compliance screening, and the fallback to correspondent banking, because each of those is a customer promise and a source of exceptions. Edge cases show the limits. Buna settles in central bank money, so each participating bank must hold sufficient funds at its central bank, and a payment that exceeds the available balance will be queued or rejected, so liquidity management is part of the service. A payment in a currency pair that Buna does not support for that corridor cannot use Buna, and must travel by correspondent banking. A payment that is held for sanctions screening will be delayed, and the bank must tell the customer that the delay is a compliance hold, with a realistic time for release, because a customer who is told only that the payment is delayed will assume the system has failed. The effect on the bank is a product it can sell to customers who trade inside the region, with same-day settlement and known charges, which is a real competitive advantage over correspondent banking. The effect on the customer is a supplier paid the same day, a cash flow forecast that can rely on the payment time, and automatic reconciliation. The effect on operations is a new settlement arrangement to monitor, with central bank balances, corridor coverage and a fallback route, and a queue for payments that cannot use Buna that must be worked the same day. What a BA, PO or SME must understand is that Buna is a regional settlement system, not a messaging system, and its value is the direct settlement in central bank money and the full ISO 20022 data. The requirement must name the corridors, the currencies, the charge disclosure, the liquidity arrangement, the compliance screening and the fallback. The test is to send one payment on a Buna corridor, check that it settled the same day, that the charges matched the disclosure, and that the remittance data arrived intact, because if any of those fails, the system is not delivering. Further reading: Arab Monetary Fund, Buna; Bank for International Settlements, cross-border payment reports. Last reviewed 7 November 2026.