A Buna cross-border payment (Arab region RTGS)
A cross-border payment in one supported currency settles individually and in real time across two banks' Buna settlement accounts, with compliance screening run both before and after settlement.
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Bank Alfa submits the cross-border payment to Buna
Bank Alfa (originator bank) → Buna (ARPCSO / Arab Monetary Fund) · Payment instruction
Asha Traders is paying a supplier in another Arab country. Bank Alfa, a Buna participant, sends the cross-border payment to Buna in one supported currency — here US dollars. The message asks for value to move; it does not carry the money itself.
Step 1 of 6: Bank Alfa submits the cross-border payment to Buna
- 02ProcessingBuna screens the payment before settlementBuna (ARPCSO / Arab Monetary Fund)
- 03SettlementBuna settles the payment in real timeBuna (ARPCSO / Arab Monetary Fund) → Settlement agent (Buna accounts)
- 04ProcessingBuna monitors the settled paymentBuna (ARPCSO / Arab Monetary Fund)
- 06PostingNordbank credits the supplierNordbank (beneficiary bank)
Full step-by-step text (works without JavaScript)
- 02ProcessingBuna screens the payment before settlementBuna (ARPCSO / Arab Monetary Fund)
Before any money moves, Buna runs anti-money-laundering, counter-terrorism-financing and sanctions screening as a defensive control — comparing the parties against watchlists to catch a possible match before it can settle.
Screening checkpoint: Pre-settlement AML/CTF and sanctions screening — Screening runs before settlement so a possible match can be held and reviewed rather than settled first. A hit is a flag for a person to check, not an automatic block.
- 03SettlementBuna settles the payment in real timeBuna (ARPCSO / Arab Monetary Fund) → Settlement agent (Buna accounts)
Buna is a real-time gross settlement system: it settles this payment individually the moment it is ready, debiting Bank Alfa's Buna settlement account and crediting Nordbank's, in the payment's own currency. No netting and no waiting for a cycle.
- DR Bank Alfa's USD settlement account at Buna — USD 25,000.00
- CR Nordbank's USD settlement account at Buna — USD 25,000.00
- 04ProcessingBuna monitors the settled paymentBuna (ARPCSO / Arab Monetary Fund)
Buna also screens and monitors after settlement — a second defensive pass that can surface patterns a single pre-settlement check might miss and feed later investigation. Screening applies both before and after the money moves.
Screening checkpoint: Post-settlement screening and monitoring — Monitoring settled payments is defensive: it looks for possible matches and unusual patterns after the fact, so a concern found late can still be investigated and reported.
- 06PostingNordbank credits the supplierNordbank (beneficiary bank)
Because the interbank leg already settled with finality on the Buna accounts, Nordbank can post the credit to the supplier's account without waiting on anything else.
- CR Supplier's account at Nordbank — USD 25,000.00
What this simplifies: One payment in one currency settling gross. Real Buna operation spans several supported currencies, six-days-a-week operating windows and cut-offs, and layered compliance screening across many participants — none of that detail is drawn here.
Sources for this flow3
- Official requirement
Buna ↗ — Arab Monetary Fund / Arab Regional Payments Clearing and Settlement Organization
Buna settles cross-border multi-currency payments in central bank money via participants settlement accounts, with compliance screening integrated around settlement.
- Market practice
Wolfsberg Group Sanctions Screening Guidance ↗ — The Wolfsberg Group
Wolfsberg guidance is industry market practice, not law; institutions vary in how they apply it.
- Simplified educational illustration
Payments Signal editorial teaching models — Payments Signal
What this simplifies: Fictional banks and a single USD payment; a separate settlement-agent actor stands in for Buna's account structure, and real screening involves layered lists, thresholds and case management not shown here.
Used wherever diagrams, scenarios, figures, or example values are didactic constructions rather than sourced facts; every such use carries a simplifications disclosure. All people, companies, banks, and list entries in examples are fictional.