Banking and financial services

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance H.E. Keat Chhon announced that Cambodia would be free from the Official Development Assistance (ODA) by 2030. Speaking to the U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia H.E. William E. Todd in a discussion at the ministry yesterday, H.E. Keat ...

Bank of China is in negotiations with Cambodia’s central bank on the promotion of business transactions in Chinese yuan. The official talks reflect rapid trade growth between the two countries at a time when several commercial banks in Cambodia have launched yuan remittance and trade-settlement products. The ...

Revenues generated by insurance firms increased 40 percent ro $18.9 million between january and June compared to the same period last year, according to data released yesterday by the General Insurance Association of Cambodia (GIAC). Fire insurance continued to reign as the sector’s top earner, accounting ...

Military police in Siem Reap province arrested a 33-year-old woman this week on accusations of fraudulent activity involving writing a cheque at a local bank. Cheque account usage, an infrequently used service only a few years ago, is gaining traction in the Kingdom. Bank officials said fraudulent cheques ...

Cambodia Life Insurance Company Plc plans to bundle services with banks to offer guarantees on mortgages, company representatives said. The service is hoped to make mortgages more accessible in a country where housing loans are still considered risky business. Collateral is usually required to take loans ...

Banks here are trying to take advantage of a growth in Chinese investment by launching services that will allow payments from local banks to be made in China’s currency, the renminbi. Grant Knuckey, CEO of ANZ Royal Bank, said that because of a growing number of ...

Slowly but steadily, demand to do cross-border business in Chinese yuan is pushing its way into one of Asia’s dollar-dominated strongholds. As China continues to liberalise the yuan – or at least hint at when some capital controls could be lifted – Cambodian businesses that import ...

Loans and deposits at Cambodia’s 32 commercial banks rose by more than 30 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, year-on-year in the first half of 2012, which the central bank governor and economists said reflected the growth in economic activities even as export growth ...

Loan demands from Cambodia’s banking industry had surged by 31 percent in the last twelve months thanks to the growing business activities in trade, real estate, agriculture and manufacturing, a central bank’s senior official said Tuesday. As of June 2012, the kingdom’s 32 commercial banks had ...

Hattha Kaksekar Ltd, a local microfinance institution, has invested almost US$2 million in a new ATM network, the company announced yesterday. Hattha Kaksekar now has around $32 million in deposits and will become the first financial institution to use SmartVista, an automated ATM process which also ...

Hattha Kaksekar Limited, one of the country’s largest microfinance institutions (MFIs), is in talks to become a commercial bank by 2014, an official at the micro-lender said yesterday. The move, if successful, will be in line with the Central Bank’s policy to support MFIs in diversifying ...

Two financing agreements, implemented by the French Development Agency, were signed on 12 July 2012 at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, in the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy and Finance, H.E.M. Keat Chhon, to support two key sectors for economic and rural development of Cambodia. A financing agreement of 800,000 Euros (1 ...

China is the largest provider of financial assistance to Cambodia for agriculture and irrigation development in the last three years, Cambodia’s Minister of Finance Keat Chhon said on Tuesday. Since 2010 to date, he said, Cambodia has received a total loan of $561 million and a ...

Acleda Bank has filed an application to start banking operations in Burma with the central bank and is on track to open its first microfinance branch in the country by January, Acleda President In Channy said yesterday. Mr. Channy said the bank submitted its application for ...

One of Malaysia’s biggest investment banks, RHB Capital, announced it will acquire OSK Indochina Bank, via the transfer of 100 per cent of OSK Investment Bank shares from parent OSK Holdings, giving OSK Holdings a 10 per cent stake in the larger Malaysian RHB Capital ...

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Cambodia where she met with Prime Minister Hun Sen to discuss U.S. investment and Cambodia’s outstanding debt. Cambodia wants the United States to forgive more than $400 million in debt accrued by the US-backed military government of Lon ...

Price levels picked up during the first half of 2012 but will likely cool down in the second half of the year due to changes in energy prices and major food related items. Therefore, the inflation rate has been upwardly adjusted by 30 basis points to 4.8 percent ...

Despite being downgraded by Moody’s just over two months ago, profits at Cambodian Public Bank (Campu) and Acleda Bank—two of the largest banks in the country—increased by about 50 percent during the first half of the year, according to figures provided by the banks yesterday. In ...

Phnom Penh Commercial Bank will offer “wedding loans” to newlyweds, a product based on a similar borrowing practice is South Korea. The majority-owned South Korean bank will set aside more than US$1 million for start-up families that don’t want their parents shelling out savings for new ...

Access to the region’s largest collective financial resource, the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, could be easier than expected for Cambodia, according to an Asian Development Bank economist. Initiated in May, the fund is expected to lend up to US$4 billion and leverage up to $13 billion for ...

Prasac, a leading micro-finance institution in Cambodia, had increased its registered capital from US$3.8 million to $20 million in preparation for its transformation into a commercial bank by 2014, the institution said yesterday. “The registration requirement of $37.5 million is a very small amount to ...

PRASAC Microfinance Institution, celebrating its eighteenth anniversary this year in the Cambodia microfinance market, has increased its registered capital from 15-4 billion riel to 80 billion riel. The increase of the share capital has been authorized by the National Bank of Cambodia and the company is now amending its Articles of Incorporation. PRASAC’s share capital is ...

Canadian insurance and financial services company Manulife Financial officially launched its Cambodian country office on June 28, one of several new players seeking to enter one of Southeast Asia’s still-untapped markets. Britain’s No.1 insurer Prudential said last week it had approval from the Cambodian government to open a wholly foreign-owned life insurance operation. Manulife, the world’s ...

Cambodians can now invest in gold through one of the Kingdom’s Malaysian-owned banks, CIMB. The investment product has been met with mixed reviews from experts, but could tap a popular and traditional means of investment. CIMB’s Gold Deposit Account would give customers a gold-backed investment option without ...