The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) and Visa, the payments technology company, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support cross-border payments between the Arab region and the rest of the world.
As part of the MoU, Visa and Buna, the regional payment platform owned by the AMF, will set the foundation for mutual beneficial interoperability and a partnership to enable additional rails of money transfer across the two systems.
Buna and Visa will collaborate to provide their network of participants and member banks respectively, quick, efficient, cost-effective and secure channels to execute cross-border payments in Arab and International currencies, allowing diversified pay-out options.
Under the partnership, the groups will strengthen their capacities and value propositions, to cater to the expanding financial needs of the Arab region, and design optimal solutions that can open sustainable opportunities in the payment industry.
Dr. Abdulrahman Al Hamidy Director General & Chairman AMF
“Buna and Visa partnership is in line with our strategic approach to join forces with international institutions that share with us the same vision to contribute to the development and growth of the payment industry across the Arab world and globally. With this initiative, Buna continues to develop and grow its diversified pool of innovative solutions, providing its participant banks additional safe and credible channels to broaden their cross-payment capacities, implement innovative business models and better serve their clientele. Both Visa and Buna will capitalize on this partnership to deliver joint cross-border payment products and services that are risk-controlled and with broad coverage and extended availability to better serve the diverse needs of the financial and payment community in the Arab region and beyond.”
Dr. Saeeda Jaffar, Group General Manager for GCC, Visa commented, “This MOU reinforces Visa’s commitment to supporting the evolution of the Arab region and the vital role digital payments play in this sphere. We believe that driving the adoption of real-time payments can be enabled through value-added services, and our vision is to support our clients to promote more innovative real-time payments use cases to benefit customers in the region who are looking for industry-leading money transfer and cross-border solutions.”
