Banking and financial services

Cross-border remittance transfers continue to rise despite slower growth in Asian economies as more Cambodians seek work abroad to support their families back home, an economist said yesterday, commenting on recent data.Worker remittances, which comprise personal transfers by migrant workers to their households back home, ...

Cambodia’s central bank will temporarily suspend its eight-month campaign to bring informal moneylenders into its fold as it lacks the resources to review the mountain of registration applications it has received and needs time to tweak the licensing requirements, a National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) ...

Cambodia’s central bank yesterday again raised the issue of the country’s highly dollarised economy, suggesting that government policies and action plans will be enforced over the long term to promote the use of the riel, giving the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) more monetary control.Speaking ...

A new draft agreement between the largest banks in Cambodia and South Korea aims at facilitating the flow of money transfers between the two countries, making it easier for companies that import Korean goods to settle their invoices and for migrant Cambodian workers to send ...

As businesses and banks prepare for the 11th World Islamic Economic Forum in Malaysia on November 3, some Islamic microfinance businesses are considering bringing interest-free loans to Cambodia. ...

Cambodia’s newest microfinance institution FASMEC Microfinance officially launched yesterday.With a start-up capital of $1 million raised from a handful of investors on the new company’s board, the MFI hopes to expand its loan portfolio by the end of 2016. ...

Cambodia’s largest bank, Acleda Bank, announced its half-yearly results on August 26, reporting a 40 per cent increase in net profits as compared to the same period last year, on the back of strong loan and deposits growth. ...

The Royal Microfinance institution launched its operations in Cambodia on Thursday, bringing the total number of micro-lenders in the kingdom to 50. ...

Bank deposits and loans during the first half of this year grew significantly as compared with the same period in 2014, with loans alone increasing over 30 per cent, drawing mixed reactions from industry insiders on the risks of this rapid credit growth. ...

Cambodia’s commercial banks lent $11.9 billion to customers in the first half of this year, a 33 percent increase from the amount lent during the same time last year, according to a National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) report released Tuesday. ...

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court on Tuesday charged an employee of the Foreign Trade Bank of Cambodia over the theft of $1.6 million from the firm, a police official said. ...

The government wants Cambodia’s Muslim community to start its own bank to cater to the 600,000 Muslims living here, Labor and Vocational Training Ministry’s secretary of state Datuk Othsman Hassan said yesterday. ...

Five rural credit operators signed an agreement to join the Credit Bureau Cambodia on Thursday as the watchdog and the National Bank of Cambodia ramp up efforts to better monitor the country’s expansive, but largely informal, rural lending industry. ...

Cambodia’s microfinance sector is continuing to grow at a rapid pace, with loan disbursements in the first six months of this year increasing almost 50 percent on last year, according to an industry association. ...

The government has set aside some $33 million to finish rebuilding Cambodia’s northern rail line by late next year, according to the Transportation Ministry, reanimating a long-delayed and over-budget project that had been one of the Asian Development Bank’s priorities in the country. ...

The governor of the National Bank of Cambodia hit out at unlicensed microfinance institutions or lenders, who he said were the reason why interest rates in the sector were high, despite interest rates falling among registered lenders. ...

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has given Cambodian microfinance institute Hattha Kaksekar Ltd (HKL) a loan of up $10 million, aiming to boost access to finance to small- and medium-sized enterprises in Cambodia’s rural areas.​ ...

High electricity prices, low wages, limited irrigation and modest rice and crop prices were among the top concerns raised by government officials at a workshop in Phnom Penh on Monday to help the World Bank decide how to spend its money on the country over ...

Three Thai banks – Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), TMB Bank (TMB) and Kiatnakin Bank (KKB) – together with Netherlands-based ING Bank have offered a syndicated loan of US$65 million (Bt2.2 billion) to PRASAC Microfinance Institution, the biggest microfinance provider in Cambodia. ...

At least $1 billion in surplus liquidity is sitting idle in Cambodia’s banking system and could be unlocked if the central bank implemented a more effective interbank lending mechanism, experts say. ...

Four foreign banks, under the umbrella of the International Finance Cooperation, a member of World Bank Group, provided $65 million in syndicated loans to Cambodian microfinance institution Prasac to expand its lending portfolio. ...

Three Thai banks have joined IFC’s $65 million syndication loan to a Cambodian microfinance institution to boost the access to funding of micro, small, and medium rural and agricultural enterprises, most of which are owned by women.  ...

Cambodia’s largest bank, Acleda Bank, announced yesterday that it was infusing $40 million to add to its current capital of $226 million, as it looks to expand domestic and foreign operations and keep up with the rising demand for credit in the Kingdom. ...

The Phnom Penh branch, which will serve customers from all over Cambodia, is BBL’s 29th international branch and the third in Cambodia of a Thai bank. The bank resumed operations on December 30 as the 45th commercial bank in Cambodia and held the grand opening yesterday. ...