Banking and financial services

In late 2009, two months after graduating with a degree in economics, Heng Piseth found a job as a credit officer with a microfinance institution in Kampong Thom province. The story reflects a larger trend confronting young Cambodians entering the financial sector’s job market. While ...

Cambodia’s insurance sector earned a total premium of 22 million U.S. dollars in the first six months of the year, up 25 percent from the 17.6 million U.S. dollars it made over the same period last year, the industry’s figures showed Tuesday. The premiums were from ...

In 2010, the Ha Tien Vegas Entertainment Resort, a casino investment on Kampot province’s border with Vietnam that included luxury karaoke rooms and suites, launched with high hopes of attracting Vietnamese gamblers. At the end of December, Ha Tien Vegas closed down. To the north, in ...

Revenue at the Cambodia Post (CP), the country’s mail service provider, rose nearly $2 million in the first half of this year, a 10 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2012. But the service still handles mostly international shipments, and is failing ...

Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said Tuesday that its single-B ratings and stable outlook for Cambodia’s Acleda Bank Plc were “unaffected” by a recent surge in ATM cash withdrawals. A statement from Singapore said Sunday evening withdrawals after polls closed in national elections were about $4 ...

Both outstanding loans and savings deposits in 35 microfinance institutions (MFIs) continued to grow from January through to June this year, according to the latest report from the Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA). By the end of the first half of this year, total loans from MFIs ...

Economic diversification is attracting substantial sums of FDI from China and beyond. Rich in history and culture and blessed with wonderful natural and human resources that are driving its impressive economic growth and attracting record sums of foreign direct investment (FDI), the Kingdom of Cambodia offers ...

Japan-base Terra Motors said it plans to sell its smartphone-compatible electric scooter in Cambodia by the end of this year. The lithium-battery-powered A4000i, introduced last week in Tokyo, can be connected to an iPhone, delivering live data while driving. “We will start to sell this scooter ...

It is almost two years to the day since Cambodia’s stock market launched in Phnom Penh in front of proud government officials, senior financiers and eager investors from across the region. Initial expectations were that a total of three state-owned firms would be listed within six ...

Deposit and loans at major commercial banks have continued to climb over the first half of this year, industry officials say. Grant Knuckey, chief executive officer of ANZ Royal Bank, said yesterday that ANZ continues to see strong growth in trade finance led by the agricultural ...

Acleda Bank is trying to protect its customers from getting bamboozled by a phone scam in which callers allegedly posing as bank employees ask for money transfers in exchange for a prize, according to a statement and ads placed in a local newspaper. An Acleda ...

Mizuho Bank, one of Japan’s largest banks, opened a representative office here Monday thanks to increasing interest in Cambodia by Japanese investors, a bank official said. To date, Cambodia has five foreign banks’ representative offices, 34 commercial banks, seven specialized banks and 37 microfinance institutions, ...

As trade activity between Cambodia and China intensifies, banks are seeing an increase in deals transacted in yuan, the Chinese currency. Operating in Cambodia since 2010, Bank of China’s Phnom Penh Branch has been trying to promote business transactions in yuan, and has seen a significant ...

A new Malaysian player in Cambodia’s expanding banking sector aims to capture the “emerging affluent” with its mobile and online services. Malaysian-based Hong Leong Bank will begin operating in Phnom Penh today, with a branch on Street 214. Joe Farrugia, CEO of Hong Leong Bank Cambodia, ...

Hong Leong Bank Bhd’s (HLB) subsidiary Hong Leong Bank (Cambodia) PLC (HLBC) has clinched a banking licence for its operations in the country from the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC). HLBC, a commercial bank with a capital of RM119.25mil, would begin operations on July 8, the ...

Trade volume between Cambodia and China was valued at $1.79 billion in the first four months this year, a 42 per cent increase compared to the  same period last year, according to the Chinese embassy in Cambodia. In 2012, bilateral trade between the countries reached about ...

The expanding banking sector and the spread of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in rural areas have failed to elbow informal, unlicensed money lending out of the market, industry experts say. Fast and easy access to money – as well as the fear of “losing face” by borrowing ...

Cambodia’s largest microfinance institution, (MFI) Prasac, has received a $60.5 million loan to strengthen its capacity in offering broader financial services in the country. On Friday, Prasac signed the agreement for the syndicate loan – provided by more than one lender – with the Netherlands Development ...

As volatility strikes Asian markets in anticipation of the US Federal Reserve winding down quantitative easing – the practice of injecting money into the economy – the National Bank of Cambodia says the Kingdom will remain largely insulated thanks to an investment market still in ...

One of Japan’s largest banks will open a representative office in July due to burgeoning interest in Cambodia most likely by Japanese investors, a bank official said yesterday. Mizuho Financial Group will open a small office in Phnom Penh Tower on Monivong Boulevard on July 8, ...

Taiwan-based Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank Ltd plans to open a representative office in Cambodia, joining an increasing number of Taiwanese banks and garment industry investors in the Kingdom. Shanghai Commercial & Savings would enter a crowded sector, behind other Taiwanese-based financial intuitions [sic]. Hua ...

Diners may soon be able to leave their wallets at home the next time they decide to eat at a restaurant in Phnom Penh. Starting next week, WING, a Cambodian mobile payment service provider, will introduce a new service that allows people to pay their restaurant ...

Growing cyber attacks on government institutions and infrastructure could pose a threat to Cambodia’s vulnerable banking sector, officials with the National Cambodia Computer Emergency Response Team (CamCert) said yesterday. Speaking at the fifth annual Banking and Microfinance Conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh yesterday, ...

While Cambodia has made considerable strides in its banking sector, it still lags behind countries in the region in the areas of e-banking and access to services, industry experts attending the Fifth Banking and Microfinance Conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Phnom Penh said yesterday. ...