Banking and financial services

Visa Inc, the world’s leader in digital payments, experienced strong growth in Cambodia in 2017 with the number of Visa cards in the country increasing by 65 percent compared to the previous year. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia on Wednesday announced it is revoking the licenses of 11 rural credit institutions and rejecting license applications from 12 other credit organisations.​ ...

The National Bank of Cambodia issued a letter on Wednesday clarifying that only seven microfinance institutions (MFIs) are licensed to accept deposits from the public. The notification came after the central bank noticed several “rural credit operators” – institutions smaller than a typical MFI that ...

Commercial banks and microfinance institutions have acquired more than 209 billion riel in riel liquidity, worth $52.4 million, from the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) since the central bank began its liquidity-providing collateralised operation (LPCO) in October 2016. ...

Cambodian microfinance institution (MFI) Chamroeun Microfinance Plc is negotiating with Japanese firm Renet Japan Group to sell a 90 percent stake in the MFI to the Japanese used goods dealer, according to Nikkei Asian Review. ...

Credit Bureau Cambodia (CBC) yesterday released its report for the fourth quarter of 2017, which showed significant growth in applications for credit, particularly in the credit card and mortgage sectors. ...

The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) yesterday warned the public against investing in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, arguing that there is no regulation in place to manage the use of digital coins. ...

The rate of microfinance loans with overdue payments nearly doubled last year according to the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), though it remained within a normal range and was coupled with a rise in deposits. ...

In 2017 the local financial sector continued the strong growth that has characterised the industry in recent times, with commercial banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) seeing a robust expansion in loans and deposits throughout the year, according to the National Bank of Cambodia’s (NBC) annual ...

Cambodia’s central bank yesterday announced a decision to revoke the operating licences of 11 rural credit operators for failing the abide by regulations. ...

While Cambodia remains a largely cash-based society, the market for financial technology has begun to expand through online payment services and mobile e-wallets like Pi Pay. The Post’s Robin Spiess sat down with Pi Pay CEO Tomas Pokorny to discuss the future of economic digitisation in the Kingdom. ...

Despite Cambodia having a vibrant startup scene with entrepreneurs launching ventures on a near daily basis, businesses trying to tap into financial resources for growth have difficulty accessing capital and are stuck in the unbankable “missing middle”, according to a recent study. ...

A year after a local technology company introduced new software to combat financial crime in Cambodia, four banks have started using the system to fight against money laundering and terrorism financing, the company’s executive said yesterday. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) announced on Friday that local banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) can now issue corporate bonds or list equity securities on the nascent Cambodian stock market, a move industry insiders claim will help financial institutions raise capital and be less ...

The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) recently decided to shrink the tax burden for local microfinance institutions (MFIs) by lowering withholding tax on interest from loans acquired from abroad from 14 to 10 percent, a move that the government claims will keep the massive ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) will open a museum on finance and monetary matters in January 2018, a representative of the central bank has announced. ...

With trade and investment between Cambodia and China steadily increasing, Chinese currency-backed settlements for cross-border commerce have sharply taken off as the Kingdom continues to deepen its economic dependency on the northern giant, a central bank official said yesterday. ...

The government has already provided $9 million from its emergency rice loan fund to the Kingdom’s rice millers since the harvest season began in September, nearly triple the amount it provided when it first launched the initiative last year when millers showed little appetite for ...

The central bank officially held a soft launch last Friday for its central shared switch mechanism, which connects account records of three of the Kingdom’s leading financial institutions, allowing them to operate ATM and point-of-sale (POS) terminals in tandem. ...

Commercial lenders have said the central bank’s requirement that banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) increase the share of local currency in their loan portfolio to at least 10 percent by the end of 2019 could prove challenging to implement as their biggest clients exhibit a ...

While financial technology, or fintech, has made little traction so far in Cambodia, panellists at a conference in Phnom Penh on Friday expressed confidence that the sector was poised for rapid growth.​ ...

The state-run Rural Development Bank (RDB) received a total of 10 proposals from Cambodian agricultural firms expressing interest in developing rice storage and drying facilities across three provinces using government-backed low-interest loans, a bank official said yesterday. ...

Solar home systems are an appropriate solution to provide affordable, reliable and clean electricity in rural Cambodia, and the Green Microfinance Programme assists villagers to take out loans to purchase them. ...

Next year’s national election is unlikely to slow the rapid pace of bank lending growth but could put a temporary crimp in deposits, though the sector is expected to have sufficient liquidity to absorb the impact, according to a report released yesterday. ...