Banking and financial services

ORO Financecorp Plc held its official launch on Friday, joining the growing ranks of microfinance institutions in the Kingdom. ORO Financecorp started providing business, agricultural and tractor loans in January with a $4 million capital investment from Seng Enterprise Co Ltd of Cambodia and Creed Asia ...

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday signed a 75 million U.S. dollars loan with Cambodia’s largest bank, Acleda Bank, to address the rising financing requirements of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) in the country. The agreement was inked between Christine Engstrom, director in ADB’s ...

Foreign currency deposits grew briskly during the first four months of the year, a sign that public confidence in Cambodia’s financial institutions is high despite the uncertainty after last year’s disputed national election, bankers said this week. Cheam Teang, executive vice president of Acleda Bank Plc., ...

CIMB Bank, Malaysia’s second-largest, has entered the insurance market via a partnership agreement signed yesterday with Cambodia Life Insurance Company (CLIC). In Meatra, director general of CLIC, said that under the partnership, CIMB had received full access to offer their insurance products to customers. ...

Cambodia’s largest financial institution, Acleda Bank, has been adopted into the World Economic Forum’s group of Global Growth Companies (GGC), an exclusive club made up of some of the world’s fastest-growing medium-size firms. The WEF yesterday announced that 20 companies from the Asia-Pacific region had been ...

Amret Microfinance received a $10 million boost yesterday by a loan from German development bank KfW, according to a joint statement from the finance institutions. Chea Phalarin, chief executive officer of Amret Microfinance Institution, said yesterday that the new loan – equal to nearly double its ...

Rights groups are calling out the Australian government for being “curiously absent” from discussions about further compensation for thousands of families affected by a railway rehabilitation project that it co-funded with the Asian Development Bank. The bank has borne the brunt of criticism over botched resettlement ...

Cambodia’s banking sector is looking to establish a collective fund to help recoup staff training expenses lost from competitors poaching employees off one another, Grant Knuckey, CEO of ANZ Royal said yesterday. Speaking at the launch of ANZ Royal’s business confidence index in Phnom Penh yesterday, ...

The National Bank of Cambodia on Tuesday officially issued a new 50,000-riel banknote (in equivalent to 12.5 U.S. dollars) in order to mark King Norodom Sihamoni’s 61st birthday, which falls on May 14. A sub-decree on the issuance of the new banknote was endorsed by ...

When Sor Songheng, a manager for an accountancy firm, wanted to replace his cheap Nokia phone a few months ago, he set his heart on a top-of-the-line iPhone 5S worth $780—nearly his entire monthly salary of $800. But instead of scrimping and saving for months to ...

Savings levels at Cambodia’s microfinance institutions (MFIs) have recovered well since the widespread withdrawal that followed last July’s disputed national election, with more than $90 million deposited in the first quarter of this year. The amount of deposits in MFI accounts fell from $378 million in ...

Revenue among insurance firms increased 14 percent in the first quarter compared with the same period last year, according to figures released Tuesday by the Insurance Association of Cambodia (IAC). From January to March, insurance premiums generated $13.86 million compared to $12.15 million the year before, ...

ANZ’s financing of ruling party senator Ly Yong Phat’s controversial sugar plantation has come under fire once again, this time in an investigation by NGO Oxfam into Australia’s big four banks and their links to rights abuses in developing countries. In a report titled “Banking on ...

The French Agency for Development (AFD) announced yesterday that it will provide $24 million to finance privately owned water and power providers to supply rural areas that state-run utilities cannot reach. During a ceremony held at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the AFD and the ...

As much as $320 million is being lost annually as a result of Cambodia’s reliance on the US dollar, while a longstanding mistrust in the riel means there is less of the local currency in circulation, restricting the national bank’s ability to respond in times ...

Like mob deals and black market trades, the Cambodian school budget is dealt in suitcases of cash. Four times a year, the school operating budget is dispersed in stacks of cash transferred from the central bank to the Ministry of Education, eventually ending up with the ...

The government-backed Rural Development Bank (RDB) will lend $64 million to Cambodia’s agriculture sector in 2014, the bank’s top official said yesterday. Sun Kunthor, president of RDB, said most of the funding would be used to support growth in Cambodia’s rice sector as it strives to ...

The World Bank upwardly revised Monday its GDP growth forecast for Cambodia this year to 7.2 percent, up from its October projection of 7.0 percent. In explaining the higher forecast, the bank’s East Asia and Pacific Economic Update pointed to “the expectation of renewed confidence and ...

Aeon Microfinance (Cambodia) plans to expand its branches in Cambodia this year and also diversify its products from the current base after two years of operating in the Kingdom, officials with the company say. Until now, the microfinance institution (MFI) – which is part of the ...

Local conglomerate Royal Group said Tuesday that while it is committed to its partnership with Australia-based ANZ bank, it would entertain selling its stake in ANZ Royal Bank for “a very high offer.” “The Royal Group would like to clarify that it is a strong and ...

Executives from Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) and local partner Royal Group of Companies (RGC) both went into damage control yesterday after comments by ANZ chief executive officer Mike Smith suggesting the joint banking venture between the two was on the rocks. Royal ...

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the world’s largest bank by assets, said on Tuesday it has been approved by National Bank of Cambodia as a clearing bank for the Chinese yuan currency in the country. ...

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, the country’s third-biggest lender, is keen to exit its holding in Cambodia and will look at wholly owned business models wherever regulations allow. “We got out of a relationship, a small relationship, in Vietnam. We would like to ...

Cambodia’s central bank won’t recognise bitcoin as a form of payment, making the Kingdom the latest Asian country to reject the digital currency. National Bank of Cambodia director-general Chea Serey confirmed the regulator’s stance on the issue on Wednesday, citing the absence of any e-commerce law ...