Banking and financial services

Cambodia’s central bank has asked all financial institutions, especially rural lenders, to refrain from accepting personal identity cards, residential records and family books as a guarantee while giving out loans to consumers.   ...

Sok Rasmey (not his real name) works for an NGO in Phnom Penh with a salary of $350 a month. This is usually enough to cover his modest living costs, but when urgent expenses arise, he often looks to borrow to cover his costs. Ashamed ...

A former employee of a microfinance institution (MFI) was Tuesday jailed on charges of embezzling some $300,000 from the company, a court official said. ...

In its 10th year, Cambodia’s growing microfinance sector has seen stellar credit and deposit growth. But concerns remain over this speed of credit growth in the sector, as well as the rise in unlicensed lenders operating in rural areas. ...

A former employee of a microfinance institution (MFI) was Tuesday jailed on charges of embezzling some $300,000 from the company, a court official said. ...

The number of microfinance institutions has been growing steadily over the past decade and this has contributed rising living standards in the Kingdom, according to the Cambodian Microfinance Association (CMA). ...

The double-digit growth of consumer lending in Cambodia has created a need for a comprehensive and centralised database of individual credit histories. The Post’s Cam McGrath sat down with Pascal Ly, CEO of the Credit Bureau Cambodia (CBC), to discuss the role of the Kingdom’s ...

A pilot project that offers micro-insurance to help rice farmers cope with the risks of flooding and drought is looking to build on the success of its first season by scaling up beyond three existing provinces. ...

The outgoing CEO of ANZ Royal Bank is leaving with a note of caution about the swift growth of lending in Cambodia, while noting that the banking sector had become much more competitive and technologically advanced during his four-year tenure at the helm of one ...

The National Bank of Cambodia is hosting the National Summit on the Development of the Microfinance Sector in Cambodia next month, marking a decade since the government announced that 2006 was the “Year of Microfinance.” ...

Kasikornbank, Thailand’s fourth-largest lender by assets, plans to open its first branch in Phnom Penh by August, according to a report from Nikkei Asian Review. ...

Cambodia’s microfinance sector experienced another year of explosive growth, with both lending and deposits surging over 40 per cent in 2015, according to new data by an industry association. ...

Since its launch in 2005, ANZ Royal Bank has grown to become one of the top-end banks in Cambodia, and has increased its focus on core areas of e-banking, corporate clients and introducing efficiencies in its operations. ...

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will provide a $50 million financing package to Amret Co to help the Cambodian microfinance institution increase lending to smaller businesses, particularly those in the agriculture sector and rural areas, it said in a press release. ...

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) will provide a $50 million syndicated loan to Acleda Bank to boost lending to small and medium enterprises, of which at least half will support women-owned enterprises, it said yesterday. ...

Australian banking giant ANZ has come under fire for its response to a scandal over its financing of a sugar plantation previously linked to forced evictions and child labour in Kampong Speu province. ...

Acleda Bank, Cambodia’s largest bank, is morphing its existing training centre into a full-fledged educational institution, after obtaining a licence last month. The new institute will look to provide bachelor’s and master’s degrees in business administration, with majors in finance and banking. The Post’s Sorn ...

Kasikornbank, Thailand’s fourth-largest bank by assets, has received a licence to open its first branch in Cambodia, a bank executive said yesterday. ...

Growth in the country’s expanding microfinance sector slowed slight­ly in the last quarter of 2015, but both loans and deposits finished the year about 45 percent high­er than at the end of 2014, ac­cording to figures from the Cam­bodia Microfinance Association (CMA). ...

Bank of Ayudhya Pcl (Krungsri), Thailand’s fifth largest financial group and a subsidiary of Japan’s leading financial group Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, has acquired a 100-per-cent stake of Hattha Kaksekar Limited (HKL), one of the leading microfinance institutions in Cambodia, for an undisclosed amount. ...

Though it’s extremely early days, experts this week welcomed Cambodia’s membership to the nascent China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), saying it would provide much-needed diversity of funding for the nation’s infrastructure and connectivity needs. ...

France’s BRED Bank, one of the largest lenders in Europe, plans to open its first branch in Cambodia by the end of the year as it expands its network in ASEAN, its CEO said, adding that it aims to assist  small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) is requiring financial institutions to gradually phase in a higher liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) to ensure sustainable growth in the industry and avoid crises.  ...

True Money, a new entrant to Cambodia’s growing mobile money-transfer market, said yesterday it will start operations across the Kingdom from January 1, with the first phase focusing only on local transfers, according to a company official.The money-transfer service, which comes under the Thailand-based Charoen ...