Banking and financial services

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. ...

Takeo provincial police yesterday sent seven men arrested for disturbing the peace – but suspected of fraud – to the provincial court, after they were arrested on Friday in Kiri Vong district’s Kiri Chung Koh commune where they had been trying to persuade people to ...

The National Bank of Cambodia and the Japan Financial Service Agency agreed yesterday to extend their cooperation on sharing experience and expertise in the areas of banking and financial sector supervision in the Kingdom. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia ( NBC), or the Central Bank, and the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA) signed a cooperation agreement on Wednesday, aiming at exchanging experience and expertise in the area of bank supervision, according to a news statement. ...

Cambodia’s immigration police arrested eight illegal Vietnamese migrants and deported 10 other Vietnamese nationals from the Kingdom on Wednesday. ...

Luxembourg-based Advans SA Group and two other foreign investors have increased their share holdings in local microfinance institution Amret, giving Advans a controlling stake in the company. Claude Falgon, executive director of Advans SA SICAR, said that since the first stake acquisition, the business had acquired ...

Sousdey Finance, a subsidiary of Thitikorn Limited in Thailand, will start a financial hire-leasing service for motorbikes in Phnom Penh, with an initial start-up fund of $100,000. ...

Globally, an estimated 2.5 billion people don’t have a bank account, but many own a cellphone, fuelling a race to turn these phones into bank books for the ‘unbanked’ to store cash, manage their accounts, make purchases and send and receive money – part of ...

Bangkok Bank’s international business this quarter is expected to witness a slowdown due to global market uncertainty, while Vietnam, which is an important market for BBL, has been sidelined by currency woes. Cambodia has some 40 banks, 10 of which are foreign. Given the size ...

An inter-governmental anti-money laundering group has stopped monitoring Cambodia after it said the Kingdom had made “significant progress” toward fighting financial crimes. ...

Cambodia’s central bank will use its upcoming Second Macroeconomic Conference to discuss how best to promote the use of the riel and hasten de-dollarisation in the economy, according to an official release yesterday. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia ( NBC), which is the regulator of the banking and finance industry, promulgated the Code of Banking Practices on Monday with an aim of further building confidence of the public in the industry, officials said. The sector had received a ...

Both deposits and loans in Cambodia’s banking sector increased about 30 per cent last year, a rise that industry insiders say is a productivity boost for the Kingdom’s economy. By the end of December, deposits at all Cambodian banks reached $10 billion, a 32 per cent ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) lacks the resources to enforce regulatory standards and bail out underperforming banks during times of need, credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s says. Cambodia’s banking sector was labelled high-risk, with a score of nine out of 10 on S&P’s2014 Banking ...

High returns on investment and healthy interest rates are helping Cambodia’s microfinance sector continue its rapid expansion, according to Cambodia-based investment firm Mekong Strategic Partners. With an average of 22 per cent return on equity and 48 per cent increase in loans across Cambodia’s 27 microfinance ...

Officials have released a public statement warning against a rise in unlicensed lenders they say are dangerously operating outside of Cambodian regulations and threatening financial stability. In a joint declaration from the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the National Bank of Cambodia on Monday, authorities ...

The total amount of savings at Cambodia’s deposit-taking microfinance institutions (MFIs) reached $897 million by the end of 2014, more than doubling from its 2013 base of $445 million, according to figures from the Cambodian Microfinance Association (CMA). Prasac is the largest MFI with deposits ...

The Association of Banks in Cambodia has called on the Securities and Exchange Commission to ensure that over-the-counter derivatives transacted by banks do not fall under the governance of the new draft prakas governing derivatives trading on Cambodia’s stock exchange. Speaking at a workshop in Phnom ...

Japanese regional bank Shiga Bank said that it will join hands with major Cambodian bank Canadia Bank Plc by the end of the month to gain access to economic information in the Southeast Asian country to provide to Japanese companies. It will be the first partnership ...

The Cambodian Rice Federation (CRF) is seeking financing from China’s Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) to build much-needed infrastructure such as warehouses and drying facilities to hopefully increase milled rice export capacities. Sok Puthyvuth, president of the CRF told the Post yesterday that the CRF had set up ...