Banking and financial services

Despite the recent spate of high-profile arrests and deportations, analysts, attorneys and civil society groups are divided on whether the Kingdom is finally beginning to live down its reputation as a haven for the fugitives and criminals who have long been drawn to the country ...

The story of Cambodia’s microfinance sector has been one of successful evolution, evidenced by the growing number of lenders and their continual development. Many microfinance institutions (MFIs) started as NGO-like entities, but the industry has come a long way. Today, there are 32 MFIs licensed ...

Two weeks after Prime Minister Hun Sen returned from China with more than half a billion dollars in new loans and grants, Cambodia once again asked Beijing for money on Thursday. In a bilateral discussion held alongside this week’s series of meetings between Asean energy ministers, ...

CIMB Bank Thai (CIMBT) clients will one day able to use ATMs for financial transactions anywhere in Asean. The regional linkage of ATMs is aimed at improving service and cost efficiency as a part of the CIMB Group’s regional strategy. Executive vice-president Dusanee Klewpatinontha said Cambodia has ...

After experiencing decades of floods, Cambodia’s microfinance institutions say they no longer have problems disbursing loans during the rainy season, according to the head of Cambodia’s Microfinance Association (CMA). A survey issued early this year by a coterie of international aid organisations, including Oxfam, Care, PACT ...

China has done a lot to support Cambodia over the years, with millions of dollars in aid, loans and investment. But after reports last week that China has pledged another $500 million in soft loans and grants-and publicly thanked Cambodia for its support in Southeast ...

Acleda Bank has signed a $US10 million loan agreement   with Proparco, a development finance institution held in part by the Agence Francaise de Développement (AFD), according to a statement released on Wednesday. With the Kingdom’s financial sector expanding rapidly and a growing demand for banking and ...

The rumour mill has been in overdrive regarding the arrest of The Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg; however, various government officials yesterday shunned the conspiracy theories. Tom Abrahamsson, head of administrative and consular matters at the Swedish Embassy in Phnom Penh, refuted speculation that Svartholm ...

As much as local people are benefiting from the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) recovery project following last year’s record floods, they aren’t receiving all the benefits they could, according to some accounts. Operating in five provinces of Cambodia to restore road access to those affected by the floods, ...

Sweden loaned Cambodia US$57 million yesterday for economic country development and cooperation for the duration of 2012-2013. The agreement was made between Cambodia’s Economic Minister Keat Chhon and Swedish ambassador to Cambodia Anne Hoglund at the Council for the Development of Cambodia (CDC) yesterday morning. Keat Chhon ...

The Ministry of Economy and Finance yesterday urged companies intending to list on the Cambodia Securities Exchange (CSX) to buy insurance to bolster public confidence. Vice President Bo Chanpiro of the Financial Industry Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance said the finance sector relies not only ...

Private companies and state enterprises are expected to raise large amounts of funds via the stock exchanges in Thailand, Laos and Cambodia over the next several years. More private firms will list on the Cambodian and Laotian bourses next year, their executives told media yesterday at ...

A breached flood protection dyke near Prey Ven city that, had it burst during the disastrous 2011 flooding, would have added a further 30,000 to the almost 52,000 households evacuated, is one project nearing completion in Cambodia’s Flood Damage Emergency Reconstruction Project. But the Asian Development ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen returned home yesterday from a quick trip to Beijing with the promise of some $523 million in new loans and grants, one day after Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jabao praised Cambodia for helping China maintain “friendly relations” with Asean. Speaking with ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has returned home from his trip to China a wealthier leader having secured upwards of US$2.5 billion in Chinese investment and loans over the next year alone, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. The package includes a $2 billion ...

China has pledged more than $500 million in soft loans and grants to Cambodia and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao thanked it for helping Beijing maintain good relations with the regional grouping ASEAN, a Cambodian junior minister said. A summit of the 10 members of the Association ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) will soon begin a national payment system that will allow the clearance of checks at all banks within a day, as well as facilitate intra-bank electronic payments, Nguon Sokha, director general of the NBC, said yesterday. Through the establishment of the national ...

India is financing the construction of a US$70 million transmission line to bring electricity from hydroelectric projects in Laos to Cambodia, according to Indian Chamber of Commerce President Debasish Pattnaik. Speaking yesterday after the official launch of the Indian Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia (ICC), Pattnaik ...

Although US businesses across ASEAN have expressed a positive investment outlook towards Cambodia and the other members of the regional group, they are unsure of how to take advantage of the free-trade agreement with China, insiders said at the first-ever ASEAN-US Business Summit, which kicked ...

Assets of Cambodian Microfinance Institution Prasac reached US$210 million with the combination of newly borrowed $15 million from Germany’s Deg-Deutsche Investitions Und Entwicklungsellschaft Mbh (DEG), officials said during the signing ceremony. The seven-year agreement at an annual interest rate of 5.5 per cent would help Prasac ...

Construction at Camko City, an unfinished, US$2 billion satellite city in northwestern Phnom Penh, has resumed after at least one sentence connecting the mega-project’s chief executive with a Korean banking scandal was dropped. , the company behind Camko City, has resumed the construction of retail space ...

US-listed corporations in Cambodia, including Chevron, Total, CNOOC and ConocoPhillips, that are engaged in extractive industries are now required to comply with additional transparency rules. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) implemented new regulations last week, two years after the legislation was initially passed by Congress. Cambodian monitors ...

One of Japan’s biggest banks, Sumimoto Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) signed agreement with Acleda Bank to share market data and banking services. The deal will give Japanese investors information on the economy and offer other banking services and is aimed at improving bilateral trade and investment. The deal would ...

China’s Export-Import Bank officials proposed to provide loans of up to US$70 million for rice milling in an effort to aid Cambodia’s efforts to export a million tonnes of rice by 2015, government officials said yesterday. The bank’s officials visited Cambodia last week to met with Cambodian ...