BUNA forges strategic partnership with Mastercard to boost MENA payments

Buna, the Arab Regional Payment System, has forged a strategic partnership with the global payments technology provider Mastercard in a move to enhance cross-border payments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, offering faster, more transparent, and cost-effective transactions for businesses and consumers.
This private-public collaboration aims to reduce friction in cross-border payments through integration of Mastercard Move, a cross-border money transfer platform, with Buna settlement system. The Arab Monetary Fund launched Buna in 2018 to operate a Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) service that enables transfers between banks to be processed and settled immediately. The new partnership is expected to reshape payment flows into and out of the MENA, while also driving faster, cheaper and more transparent cross-border payments within the region.
The collaboration particularly aims to address challenges in cross-border payments, including high transaction costs, extended processing times and limited transparency. Financial institutions will be able to send fast, transparent and cost-efficient payments to Buna participants via Mastercard Move and, conversely, Buna participants will be able to send payments out of the region via Mastercard’s network. In addition, Buna’s compliance program integrates rigorous anti-money laundering, counterterrorism financing and sanctions screening protocols both before and after settlement, ensuring that all transactions go through real-time monitoring.