Refinitiv and the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) today announced the adoption of World-Check as the preferred anti-money laundering data for “Buna”.

Buna is the first cross-border payment system in the Arab Region. It was launched by AMF earlier this year. Buna enables financial institutions to send and receive cross-border payments across the Arab region and beyond in local and international currencies. World-Check will equip Buna with a comprehensive source of anti-money laundering data, helping the platform to screen millions of transactions every month.

Mr. Mehdi Manaa, Buna’s CEO, said:

“The step cements Buna’s position as a secure and safe channel of investment and trading activities between financial institutions. Our vision is to bring together our participants through a transparent and innovative way that complies with both international standards and regional regulatory requirements. World-Check will help us achieve this vision and meet our ambition of raising the level of compliance of our network.”

Nadim Najjar, Managing Director, MENA, Refinitiv, said:

“We are proud to be part of this pioneering and innovative project led by the AMF. The transaction processing capacity of Buna is central to the integration of Arab markets, and it is critical for the settlement of payments to be effective and compliant. The system is the region’s first market infrastructure to adopt robust compliance measures on its extensive network of regional participants. It represents an additional layer of compliance to the banks and financial institutions across MENA.”

The adoption of World-Check by Buna will help promote a regional due diligence culture and raise awareness on the significance of technology systems and data integration to help solve anti-money laundering challenges.

Refinitiv offers comprehensive, timely, and trusted information to help customers manage regulatory compliance, enterprise risk and financial crime. Its leading products include World-Check, Qual-ID and its recently expanded Enhanced Due Diligence service. As FX News Group has reported, in October this year Refinitiv announced it was growing its capabilities in the due diligence space via the acquisition of Hong Kong-based Red Flag Group, a major provider of workflow, data, due diligence and ratings solutions that help corporate compliance customers to evaluate money laundering, bribery and corruption, reputational and ESG risk.