Banking and financial services

Globally, an estimated 2.5 billion people don’t have a bank account, but many own a cellphone, fuelling a race to turn these phones into bank books for the ‘unbanked’ to store cash, manage their accounts, make purchases and send and receive money – part of ...

Bangkok Bank’s international business this quarter is expected to witness a slowdown due to global market uncertainty, while Vietnam, which is an important market for BBL, has been sidelined by currency woes. Cambodia has some 40 banks, 10 of which are foreign. Given the size ...

An inter-governmental anti-money laundering group has stopped monitoring Cambodia after it said the Kingdom had made “significant progress” toward fighting financial crimes. ...

Cambodia’s central bank will use its upcoming Second Macroeconomic Conference to discuss how best to promote the use of the riel and hasten de-dollarisation in the economy, according to an official release yesterday. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia ( NBC), which is the regulator of the banking and finance industry, promulgated the Code of Banking Practices on Monday with an aim of further building confidence of the public in the industry, officials said. The sector had received a ...

Both deposits and loans in Cambodia’s banking sector increased about 30 per cent last year, a rise that industry insiders say is a productivity boost for the Kingdom’s economy. By the end of December, deposits at all Cambodian banks reached $10 billion, a 32 per cent ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) lacks the resources to enforce regulatory standards and bail out underperforming banks during times of need, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s says. Cambodia’s banking sector was labelled high-risk, with a score of nine out of 10 on S&P’s2014 Banking ...

High returns on investment and healthy interest rates are helping Cambodia’s microfinance sector continue its rapid expansion, according to Cambodia-based investment firm Mekong Strategic Partners. With an average of 22 per cent return on equity and 48 per cent increase in loans across Cambodia’s 27 microfinance ...

Officials have released a public statement warning against a rise in unlicensed lenders they say are dangerously operating outside of Cambodian regulations and threatening financial stability. In a joint declaration from the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the National Bank of Cambodia on Monday, authorities ...

The total amount of savings at Cambodia’s deposit-taking microfinance institutions (MFIs) reached $897 million by the end of 2014, more than doubling from its 2013 base of $445 million, according to figures from the Cambodian Microfinance Association (CMA). Prasac is the largest MFI with deposits ...

The Association of Banks in Cambodia has called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to ensure that over-the-counter derivatives transacted by banks do not fall under the governance of the new draft prakas governing derivatives trading on Cambodia’s stock exchange. Speaking at a workshop in Phnom ...

Japanese regional bank Shiga Bank said that it will join hands with major Cambodian bank Canadia Bank Plc by the end of the month to gain access to economic information in the Southeast Asian country to provide to Japanese companies. It will be the first partnership ...

The Cambodian Rice Federation (CRF) is seeking financing from China’s Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) to build much-needed infrastructure such as warehouses and drying facilities to hopefully increase milled rice export capacities. Sok Puthyvuth, president of the CRF told the Post yesterday that the CRF had set up ...

Two of the biggest real estate lenders in Cambodia and Singapore this week reported big movements in housing loans in their respective domestic markets. Cambodia’s Acleda Bank saw housing loans jump by 22 percent in the first quarter, year-on-year, and attributed this handsome growth to better ...

Cambodia Public Bank (Campu Bank), a subsidiary of the Malaysian Public Bank Group (PBB), posted strong gains during the first nine months of the year.​​ ...

From the start, the project seemed impossibly ambitious: A $2-billion South Korean satellite city—complete with condominiums, office space, luxury villas, a shopping mall, health clinics, banks and an airport—on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Claiming the land was not properly appraised, and that the decision ...

The launch of an unrated Laotian government bond on Thailand’s bond market could pave the way for Cambodia to issue its own government bond denominated in Thai baht. The Bangkok Post reported yesterday that Thailand’s Finance Ministry and Public Debt Management Office had allowed Cambodia, Vietnam ...

Third-party payments provider Wing yesterday penned a deal with Canada-based financial services group, Manulife. According to a joint statement issued by the two companies, Wing customers can now pay their Manulife insurance bills via the company’s mobile payments system.​ ...

Cambodia’s banking sector has continued enjoying robust growth in both loans and deposits this year, Ouk Maly, vice-governor of the National Bank of Cambodia, said Wednesday. ...

The total amount of loans in Cambodia’s banking sector could rise to $30 billion by 2020, according to a report released today by Mekong Strategic Partners, a new investment and advisory fund. Amid such growth, banks will be challenged to drastically expand their operations and will ...

Sri Lanka’s Lanka Orix Leasing Company acquired a 60 percent stake in Thaneakea Phum Cambodia (TPC) a microfinance company in Cambodia, for 20.3 million US dollars, identifying the immense potential in emerging economies of the South East Asian region the company said in a media ...

Local stock brokerage company Sonatra Securities has announced it will completely dilute its books and put a halt on all business activities from October 1. In a press release posted on Sonatra’s website last week, the firm stated without an explanation that it was suspending all ...

Businesses registered in Cambodia have until the end of the month to pay their annual property tax to the country’s General Department of Taxation (GDT). According to the GDT, business owners must pay by September 30 to avoid being fined. ...

Last month, Cambodia’s nascent yet rapidly expanding banking sector saw the new arrival of Phillip Bank through the acquisition of Hwang DBS Commercial Bank by Singapore’s Philip Capital in a $40 million deal. The number of banks in the country has more than doubled since 2005, ...