Mobile cash gaining traction

Digital cash services in Cambodia showed marked increases in users and cash flow in 2011, and still more growth is expected this year as operators launch new services and partnerships to capture a large but still-untapped rural market. The services, in which customers transfer money via their mobile phones, have in a few short years formed a fledgling market in the Kingdom with about 400,000 users, according to the National Bank of Cambodia. Australian and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, which has a partnership with domestic conglomerate Royal Group in ANZ Royal Bank, established WING in Cambodia in 2009. ACLEDA Bank’s Unity hit the market in 2010, followed by CamGSM’s Cellcard Cash last year. CamGSM is owned by Royal Group. Unity, which now requires users to hold an ACLEDA account, saw a 547 per cent increase in cash flow in 2011, with more than $64 million in total transactions, according to ACLEDA senior vice president for marketing Sok Sophea. The bank expects its more than 50,000 users to double this year, Sok Sophea said. Next month, ACLEDA will allow mobile money accounts for people who don’t have bank accounts, she said. …

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