Banking and financial services

Cambodia’s banking sector enjoyed another strong performance last year as the Kingdom’s economy continued to expand, with banking credit moderating, deposits increasing and financial institutions remaining healthy as they further integrate into the global economy, the central bank said in its annual report yesterday. ...

Inflows of foreign capital into the Kingdom’s banking sector nearly doubled during the first half of the year as two heavyweight players entered the local market and lending institutions responded to revised minimum capital requirements, a central bank official said yesterday. ...

Addressing the delegates, Chea Serey, director general of National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), stressed the role and importance of digital finance initiatives in broadening financial inclusion. She said digital finance could be a “game changer” for Cambodia’s nascent financial sector as it enables financial service ...

Cambodia’s first draft national strategy on promoting the riel is to be finalised next month and has been sent to the economic and financial policy committee of the Ministry of Economy and Finance for review and endorsement by end of the year. ...

Cambodia’s central bank purchased a total of $479.4 million worth of cash during the first half of this year to convert to riel, utilising one of the few tools the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has to stabilise the value of the local currency and ...

An $8 million bond set to debut on Singapore’s stock exchange will mobilise private capital to support social enterprises and microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines, providing nearly half a million women in these countries with more access to credit in order ...

Speed Pay Plc, a newly licensed electronic payments service provider (PSP), is gearing up to join the ranks of mobile platforms tapping into Cambodia’s nascent digital payment sector. ...

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. ...

Just one day after the Kingdom’s microlenders mutinied and said they would not implement a government directive requiring all financial institutions to implement a 10 percent value-added tax (VAT) on fees for financial services, the Tax Department announced it would back down and temporarily suspend ...

The industry body representing the Kingdom’s myriad microfinance institutions (MFIs) threw down the gauntlet yesterday, announcing that its members had categorically rejected a government directive that orders them to charge a value-added tax (VAT) on financial services fees and would not apply it. ...

Global payments giant Visa is the first international financial firm to announce the roll out of a payment solution in Cambodia for quick response codes, or QR codes, those pixelated black and white squares designed to be read by a smartphone camera that have begun ...

The central bank hopes to launch its central shared switch mechanism next month after a trial run that has already connected the account records of three of the Kingdom’s leading financial institutions, allowing them to operate ATM and point-of-sale (POS) terminals in tandem, according to ...

Banking and financial industry figures have called on the government to abolish the 10 percent value added tax on the sector and asked for further discussion. The industry thinks the tax will increase the burden on financial service users. ...

The central banks of Cambodia and South Korea signed an agreement on Friday to jointly conduct research and analyse the relationship between exchange rates and inflation in the Cambodian economy, according to bank officials. ...

The central bank has issued new regulations governing the licensing of payment services providers (PSPs), requiring that all firms providing online services to accept electronic payments have at least $2 million in registered capital, a move expected to increase the stability of the sector and ...

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 ...

Stringent capital controls imposed by China’s central bank last November that scrutinise the outbound flow of money from the mainland have created uncertainty for Chinese investors looking at the Cambodian market and could jeopardise future and existing projects. ...

Financial institutions that were abruptly ordered to change their logos earlier this year due to the perceived similarities with state iconography have begun issuing new bank cards to their clients free of charge. ...

Banking sector leaders have expressed concern over a new government decree that places additional fees on financial services, warning that the costs of what some have described as an “impractical and inefficient” tax would likely be passed along to consumers. ...

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.   ...

Aceleda Bank, Cambodia’s largest bank by assets, reported a net profit of $28.39 million in first quarter this year, down slightly from $30.19 million in the same period in 2016, according to the bank’s latest financial report. ...

Acleda Bank has provided $40 million to customers in the form of housing loans since the start of 2017, marking a growing trend of home loans being taken out across the country. ...

The Papua New Guinea-based Bank South Pacific has announced its expansion into Asia with its first Cambodian branch. ...

Mizuho Bank, one of largest banks in Japan, has started operations in Cambodia with its first branch in Phnom Penh. ...