Saudi Arabia: The Saudi Central Bank and the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) on Thursday announced that the Saudi riyal has been added as a settlement currency to Buna, a multicurrency payment platform that provides cross-border payment services for the region’s central banks and financial institutions.

The Saudi riyal is the third Arab currency to be added to Buna, joining the UAE dirham and Egyptian pound.

The AMF announced that National Commercial Bank (NCB) has been appointed as the settlement bank for the processing of the Saudi riyal on Buna.

“We highly thank the Saudi Central Bank and NCB for their strong belief in Buna’s capabilities and commitment to its plans and long-term strategy,” said Dr. Abdulrahman A. Al-Hamidy, director general and chairman of the board of the AMF.”

“Adding the Saudi riyal to Buna’s list of settlement currencies represents additional solid proof of the added value that our multicurrency platform can bring not only at regional level, but to the global payment industry.”

The AMF announced the launch of Buna in February this year. A centralized multicurrency platform, it aims to enable financial institutions, including commercial and central banks, to send and receive cross-border payments across the Arab world in a range of local and international currencies.