Banking and financial services

Election monitoring groups are questioning the National Election Committee (NEC) recent decision to let a Phnom Penh casino fund its new multi-million dollar headquarters, a move they said would cast further doubt on the body’s independence. NagaCorp, the owner of Phnom Penh’s only licensed casino, NagaWorld, ...

The stabilisation of the riel over the first half of this year is a reflection of increased confidence in using riel in the economy as well as improvements in the agricultural sector, according to economists and the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC). The slowdown in the US economy ...

Delegates from the Import-Export Bank of China will visit Cambodia next week to discuss loans for the rice-processing and exporting sector, according to government officials. Son Kunthor, president of the state-owned Cambodian Rural Development Bank, said yesterday that Chinese delegates will come to study the feasibility of ...

Almost five months after the launch of the Credit Bureau Cambodia (CBC), experts agree that it has given financial institutions valuable new access to information about creditworthiness of potential borrowers, improving efficiency and loan quality. At the same time, there are still a few rough ...

Samdech Prime Minister Hun Sen said this week that he will talk with Chinese leaders especially his Chinese counterpart PM Wen Jiaboa about finance to build 300-500 km rural roads in the country in contribution of helping poverty reduction and living conditions of the local ...

The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in cooperation with a number of organisations launched a new e-waste management project yesterday in Cambodia in a bid to recycle the country’s burgeoning electronic waste and to provide job opportunities, as Hurleypalmerflatt opened an office in Cambodia to provide jobs for ...

The exclamations of dismay that come from small-business people in Cambodia when someone tries to take a picture of their shop are to be expected, as they believe the photo will be used to make them pay taxes they cannot afford, but that doesn’t mean ...

The Chinese government is considering loaning an unspecified amount of money to cover the cost of constructing 20 new national roads, Prime Minister Hun Sen said yesterday. Speaking at the inauguration of 128-km stretch of National Road 62 linking Kampong Thom and Preah Vihear provinces, also primarily funded by ...

Amret, one of the largest micro-finance institutions (MFIs) in the country, has announced that it is making plans to raise the capital required to become a full commercial bank by 2015, an official at the institution said yesterday. Chea Phalarin, CEO of Amret, said the decision to expand ...

After sudden increase in price to KHR 6, 600 (US$ 1.62) on July 25, over the next week the price rose for a couple of days before eventually changing direction, falling to 6,400 (US$1.57) on August 1. Trading volumes were larger compared to the week ...

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance H.E. Keat Chhon announced that Cambodia would be free from the Official Development Assistance (ODA) by 2030. Speaking to the U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia H.E. William E. Todd in a discussion at the ministry yesterday, H.E. Keat ...

Bank of China is in negotiations with Cambodia’s central bank on the promotion of business transactions in Chinese yuan. The official talks reflect rapid trade growth between the two countries at a time when several commercial banks in Cambodia have launched yuan remittance and trade-settlement products. The ...

Revenues generated by insurance firms increased 40 percent ro $18.9 million between january and June compared to the same period last year, according to data released yesterday by the General Insurance Association of Cambodia (GIAC). Fire insurance continued to reign as the sector’s top earner, accounting ...

Military police in Siem Reap province arrested a 33-year-old woman this week on accusations of fraudulent activity involving writing a cheque at a local bank. Cheque account usage, an infrequently used service only a few years ago, is gaining traction in the Kingdom. Bank officials said fraudulent cheques ...

Cambodia Life Insurance Company Plc plans to bundle services with banks to offer guarantees on mortgages, company representatives said. The service is hoped to make mortgages more accessible in a country where housing loans are still considered risky business. Collateral is usually required to take loans ...

Banks here are trying to take advantage of a growth in Chinese investment by launching services that will allow payments from local banks to be made in China’s currency, the renminbi. Grant Knuckey, CEO of ANZ Royal Bank, said that because of a growing number of ...

Slowly but steadily, demand to do cross-border business in Chinese yuan is pushing its way into one of Asia’s dollar-dominated strongholds. As China continues to liberalise the yuan – or at least hint at when some capital controls could be lifted – Cambodian businesses that import ...

Loans and deposits at Cambodia’s 32 commercial banks rose by more than 30 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, year-on-year in the first half of 2012, which the central bank governor and economists said reflected the growth in economic activities even as export growth ...

Loan demands from Cambodia’s banking industry had surged by 31 percent in the last twelve months thanks to the growing business activities in trade, real estate, agriculture and manufacturing, a central bank’s senior official said Tuesday. As of June 2012, the kingdom’s 32 commercial banks had ...

Hattha Kaksekar Ltd, a local microfinance institution, has invested almost US$2 million in a new ATM network, the company announced yesterday. Hattha Kaksekar now has around $32 million in deposits and will become the first financial institution to use SmartVista, an automated ATM process which also ...

Hattha Kaksekar Limited, one of the country’s largest microfinance institutions (MFIs), is in talks to become a commercial bank by 2014, an official at the micro-lender said yesterday. The move, if successful, will be in line with the Central Bank’s policy to support MFIs in diversifying ...

Two financing agreements, implemented by the French Development Agency, were signed on 12 July 2012 at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, in the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Finance, H.E.M. Keat Chhon, to support two key sectors for economic and rural development of Cambodia. A financing agreement of 800,000 Euros (1 ...

China is the largest provider of financial assistance to Cambodia for agriculture and irrigation development in the last three years, Cambodia’s Minister of Finance Keat Chhon said on Tuesday. Since 2010 to date, he said, Cambodia has received a total loan of $561 million and a ...

Acleda Bank has filed an application to start banking operations in Burma with the central bank and is on track to open its first microfinance branch in the country by January, Acleda President In Channy said yesterday. Mr. Channy said the bank submitted its application for ...