The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) holds a virtual workshop to discuss Buna’s support to the integration of Arab financial markets

The workshop is organized in collaboration with Euroclear, and marks an ongoing series of Buna’s virtual events

More than 200 senior officials will attend, representing central banks and a wide spectrum of financial institutions from the region and beyond

Abu Dhabi, 08 April 2021: The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) holds today, Thursday April 8, 2021, a workshop to discuss Buna (the cross-border payment system owned by the AMF) consideration to expand its set of innovative solutions by supporting the clearing and settlement of securities, with the ambition of developing an integrated Arab Financial Market that is capable to increase the depth of issued financial instruments and provide easier access to Arab and international investors. Additionally, this workshop will mark one year of the Buna interactive events that reached a total number of 20 workshops, during which the Buna management team and diverse high-level guest speakers representing Arab and international financial institutions, elaborated on the value proposition of Buna and shared regular updates on its progress and plans.  

In collaboration with Euroclear, the International Central Securities Depository, the workshop will shed light on the opportunity to create an Arab Financial Market that serves the region needs for an integrated securities marketplace, where sovereign and private issuers from the region can access to local and international investors in an integrated and cost-effective way.

The workshop will host more than 200 senior officials representing Arab and international central banks, capital markets authorities and stock exchanges along with various institutions from the financial, banking and payment sectors from the region and beyond, seeking for valuable information about Buna’s recent developments.

At this occasion, Mehdi Manaa, Chief Executive Officer of Buna said: “Supported by the governors of the Arab central banks and the Arab Monetary Fund, Buna is looking forward to expanding its offering by exploring the opportunities to integrate the securities market across the Arab world and cater to the different Arab countries needs to diversify and solidify their funding models and attract foreign investments. This ambitious idea is targeting the establishment of a more integrated Arab financial market. It comes in line with the Arab Monetary Fund strategy to support the development and integration of Arab financial markets and reflects Buna’s mission to support economic growth in the Arab world and strengthen regional financial integration, by developing the financial market infrastructure.”

Mehdi added: “Buna is successfully realizing the different key phases of its plan. So far Buna list of settlement currencies includes the UAE Dirham, the Saudi Riyal, the Egyptian Pound and recently the US Dollar. We continue to expand this list by advancing with our roadmap to onboard the Euro and the Jordanian Dinar in the upcoming weeks. In parallel, Buna’s network of participants from the region and beyond is recording a steady growth with approximately 90 banks from the Arab region that are being onboarded out of more than 140 that are in various stages of preparation. Additionally, we are looking forward to complement Buna’s current services of multi-currency cross-border interbank payments, commercial payments, and consumer remittances, as we progress with our plans to launch and activate instant payments.”

Buna, is a cross-border payment system owned by the Arab Monetary Fund, aiming to enable financial institutions and central banks in the Arab region and beyond to send and receive payments in local currencies as well as key international currencies in a safe, cost- effective, risk-controlled, and transparent environment. Buna offers participants modern payment solutions that comply with international standards, principles, and compliance requirements. Thanks to its cross-border payment system Buna contributes to exploring and strengthening opportunities for economic and financial integration in the Arab region and supporting investment ties with the global trading partners. Buna welcomes the inclusion of all banks that meet the criteria and conditions for participation, primarily the standards and procedures of compliance aspects.