Micro-finance

Solar home systems are an appropriate solution to provide affordable, reliable and clean electricity in rural Cambodia, and the Green Microfinance Programme assists villagers to take out loans to purchase them. ... ...

The Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA) has announced that it will establish a staff development fund to stem the tide of cross-institutional recruitment in the competitive microfinance institution (MFI) sector. ... ...

Access to credit would increase dramatically if Cambodian borrowers could put up movable assets as collateral, but lenders say much more needs to be done to remove the risks associated with these assets, including the establishment of a legal framework that would restrict changes in ...

Cambodia’s central bank is to conduct on-site audits of microfinance institutions to check if they are complying with the interest rate cap that came into force more than two months ago, industry insiders have said. ...  ...

After several years of rapid growth, the expansion of credit provided by the Kingdom’s myriad microfinance institutions (MFIs) stalled abruptly last year, raising concerns poorer Cambodians could be pushed toward loan sharks to obtain credit or cover their debts, the World Bank said in its ...

A conservation NGO official yesterday said he planned to ask microfinance lenders to better scrutinise their loans after a spate of cases over the last month showed that such loans had been used by illegal loggers to purchase chainsaws and tractors for transporting timber. ... ...

The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) is planning to form a joint committee chaired by government officials and microfinance institutions (MFIs) to promote small loan disbursements as the new 18 percent loan interest rate cap takes effect, according to an announcement released by the ...

Cambodian microlender Hattha Kaksekar Ltd (HKL) has secured a $15 million cash injection to expand its business operations from its parent company, Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya, Hout Ieng Tong, president and CEO of HKL, confirmed yesterday. ... ...

 Just months ahead of local elections, the Cambodian government has ordered the microfinance industry to cap interest rates on new and refinanced loans at 18 percent a year starting April 1. ... ...

The apex body for the nation’s microfinance industry announced yesterday that the central bank had tentatively agreed to a number of measures it had requested to ease the burden on microfinance lenders following last week’s unilateral decision to cap annual interest rates at 18 percent ...

Hong Kong financial giant The Bank of East Asia and Sri Lanka’s LOLC announced on Friday that they have jointly acquired a majority stake in Prasac Microfinance, Cambodia’s largest microfinance institution (MFI) by assets, in what could be the largest acquisition of a Cambodian lender ...

Nearly everyone living in Pann Sopheatra’s village, just across the Mekong River from Phnom Penh, has either taken out a microfinance loan or knows someone who has. ...  ...

The National Bank of Cambodia announced on Monday that it would set an annual interest rate ceiling of 18 percent for all microfinance institutions (MFIs), sparking concerns that lenders would stop offering smaller loans that often keep the most financially vulnerable afloat. ... ...

Micro-Credit Ratings International Ltd (M-CRIL), an Indian provider of rating and advisory services to the microfinance industry, has secured a $1.5 million equity investment agreement from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to push into emerging markets including Cambodia, the ADB said in an announcement last ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen on Wednesday pulled the country’s mobile operators into his aggressive campaign to clear up any confusion about the relationship between the government and microfinance institutions (MFIs), ordering them to send audio and text messages telling subscribers that MFIs were private entities. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday ordered microfinance institute (MFI) Prasac, one of the largest in Cambodia, to change its logo immediately for fear that the public may confuse it as representing the government. ... ...

Thailand's Bank of Ayudhya released its first financial statement since completing its acquisition of Cambodian microlender Hattha Kaksekar Ltd (HKL) last month, showing a quarterly net profit increase of 10.6 percent from a year earlier. ... ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) will unveil its initial rates that banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) will be able to use, as the NBC begins its liquidity-providing collateralized operation (LPCO) to boost the country’s riel liquidity, according to a senior bank official. ... ...

Thailand’s Bank of Ayudhya PLC., known more commonly as Krungsri announced last week that it was entering the Cambodian microfinance market with the acquisition of Hatta Kaksekar Limited (HKL). In a press release, Krungsri ‒ itself part of the Japanese-based Mitsubishi UFJ since 2013 ‒ described ...

The country’s financial institutions are closely monitoring loans that have been made to rice farmers, who say that this year’s fall in rice prices will affect their ability to make repayments, industry officials said yesterday. Last year, farmers were paid around 840 riel ($0.21) per kilogram ...

A banking sector initiative launched yesterday aims to advise Cambodia’s financial sector on best practices for sustainable lending while capitalising on the growing pool of international funds that could flow into green and socially responsible projects. The Sustainable Finance Initiative will conduct two years of ...

Eight months since announcing the biggest acquisition deal in the history of Cambodia’s financial sector, Thailand-based Bank of Ayudhya, also known as Krungsri Bank, has yet to receive approval for the landmark deal. In a statement released in January, Bank of Ayudhya announced its intention ...

More than a year into a government-backed campaign to clamp down on unlicensed lenders, nearly 130 small lenders operating under the radar have come into the fold, officials said yesterday. ... ...

Cambodia's microfinance sector continued to expand rapidly during the first half of the year, despite concerns over rising default rates as the industry’s main borrowers – provincial farmers – struggle to repay their loans after successive seasons of drought and poor harvests. ... ...