Banking and financial services

The Advanced Bank of Asia (ABA) is expanding its Siem Reap operations to take advantage of the growing tourism sector. The bank is moving out of its 160-square-metre Sivutha Street office into a 1,080-square-metre, three-level office across the road, and it is now one of the ...

Discussions on restarting World Bank loans to Cambodia will not commence until after the 2013 elections, a bank official said yesterday. After a landmark freeze on loans announced in December 2010, a response to the forced evictions by the government of residents of the Boeung Kak ...

Cambodia’s nascent life insurance market grew slightly after Manulife Cambodia launched the Manulife Savings Protector yesterday. Combining savings and protection, it will provide life protection for 10 or 15 years to create an estate for relatives in case of untimely death and offer benefits from ...

Aeon Thana Sinsap (Thailand) plans aggressive business expansion both here and in neighbouring countries. The leading Japanese non-bank company is using Thailand as a centre to expand its businesses in other Asean countries. Aeon Thana Sinsap plans to offer more financial services in Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and ...

Cambodia is aiming to persuade all of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) least developed country members to propose a further suspension of the opening of their service sectors to the WTO’s rich members as the 2013 deadline for the proposal draws nearer. The least developed countries ...

Siam Commercial Bank will begin expanding its footprint across the region in anticipation of greater business opportunities and competitive pressures with the launch of the Asean Economic Community in 2016. SCB, Thailand’s third-largest bank in terms of assets, operates branches in Laos, Singapore and Hong ...

Microfinance institution Sathapana has increased its maximum loan size to US$200,000, a 300 per cent increase from the previous level of $50,000. The upgrade in loan size is a result of Cambodia’s good economic climate and the expectation that there will be demand among customers for ...

Cambodian officials have refused to establish a specialised bank for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) despite experts saying the sector needs aid in order to compete efficiently with ASEAN economic integration in 2015. Hang Chounnaron, secretary of the Ministry of Economy and Finance said Cambodia would ...

Acleda Bank announced on Sunday that it will expand its banking services into Burma by opening a microfinance institute there in January. ...

The Bank of China launched the first dual currency international bank card yesterday, part of a move to expand in the local market by offering both US dollar and Renminbi accounts on a single card. People can get the card for a deposit of US$10 at ...

For the first time in ASEAN history, Cambodian businesses won three awards, presented on Saturday night at the 5th ASEAN business awards at the 49th ASEAN-Business Advisory Council meeting. The winning Cambodian companies were Agrotech Vita Co Ltd; ACLEDA Bank Plc and First Finance Plc. ...

In an effort to reach a crowing number of customers in the agricultural sector Malaysia based CIMB bank Plc on Friday opened 4 new branches in Phnom Penh, Battambang and Kompong Cham cities. CIMB wants to provide loans to customers in the rice, ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Wednesday that the government would intervene to stem the riel’s sharp rise against the US dollar in recent days. “The Cambodian riel has been rising for several days,” he told a land-distribution ceremony in Oral district in Kampong Speu province, ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the OPEC Fund for International Development have signed an agreement to support trade in emerging Asian countries under the ADB’s Trade Finance Program, according to a news release. The risk distribution agreement will support a projected incremental trade flow between ...

The World Bank and Japan will promote Thailand as the insurance centre of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to help develop the industry in neighbouring countries and provide professional services to the more advanced economies. The move is also expected to upgrade the insurance ...

Maruhan Japan Bank yesterday became the first commercial bank in Cambodia to make a direct equity investment into a microfinance institution by becoming Sathapana’s majority shareholder, with a 95.1 per cent stake. Financial details were not disclosed. The shareholders who sold out to Maruhan were FMO, ...

Cambodia’s highly dollarized economy could benefit from a rush of foreign capital into Asia unleashed by the U.S. Federal Reserve’s latest economic stimulus, unlike some of its Asian neighbors, as it lifts demand for real estate and garment exports in the developing country, a senior ...

Although costs can be high for borrowing and it can be difficult to pay regularly every month, the trend of borrowing from banks by Cambodian people to buy property is still steadily increasing, according to experts. Keuk Narin, vice president of Asia Real Estate Cambodia, said ...

The value of deposits with Cambodia’s 31 microfinance institutions grew more than 96 per cent in the first nine months of the year compared to last year, a rise industry experts say is due to the political stability and economic growth of the Kingdom. Official data ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and a microfinance industry insider applauded one of Cambodia’s top 10 MFIs Sathapana Limited, for changing the majority shareholder to a commercial bank. They said it proves a positive and strong funding source is essential for MFIs to peruse their ...

With the recent announcement that two Taiwanese banks plan to open branches in Cambodia, the number of commercial banks in the country will swell to 34 and may even go higher as foreign businesses seriously consider Cambodia an alternative to more costly countries such as ...

Maruhan Japan Bank yesterday became the first commercial bank in Cambodia to make a direct equity investment into a microfinance institution by becoming Sathapana’s majority shareholder, with a 95.1 per cent stake. Financial details were not disclosed. ...

Cambodia rose five places in the World Bank’s annual Doing Business study to 133I’d out of 185 countries, largely due to the establishment of a credit bureau, which makes acquiring loans easier. The report, which ranks countries in 10 categories on the ease of doing ...

Masahiro Kawai, dean of the Asia Development Bank Institute, believes too great a focus is being placed on the realization of the 2015 ASEAN Economic Community at the cost of considering middle- and longer-term issues in the ASEAN region. “Economic community-building is not going to be completed in ...