Banking and financial services

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 ...

Local entrepreneur Ki Chong Tran believes he has the solution to many of Cambodia’s problems. On March 1, Tran submitted what he described as a “long-held weight off his chest” – a six-page proposal to the New York-based Bitcoin Foundation outlining all the ways the ...

Professor Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate who is considered the founding father of microfinance, urged an assembled crowd at the Royal University of Phnom Penh yesterday to start thinking about creating so-called social businesses. “Charity money goes, and does wonderful work, but it doesn’t come back,” ...

Moody’s Investors Service affirmed Wednesday Cambodia’s government issuer rating at B2 with a stable outlook, stating that recent labour unrest could result in only slightly slower economic growth this year. “Cambodia’s underlying credit strengths are expected to withstand the impact of recent political tensions and labor ...

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Tuesday that the country’s banking sector has enjoyed strong growth in recent years and urged the banks to increase their lending to agriculture. According to the report of the National Bank of Cambodia, lending at the kingdom’s 34 commercial banks ...

The International Finance Corporation’s compliance ombudsman has officially accepted a complaint filed by ethnic minority families in Ratanakkiri province against the IFC for investing in rubber plantations accused of stealing land and clearing forests. In a letter sent to the families on Monday, the ombudsman deems ...

A month after a call for civil servants to strike for higher pay, Prime Minister Hun Sen on Monday ordered government ministries to ensure that staff are paid on time, and said that otherwise workers could air their grievances in the press. The prime minister’s remarks, ...