News

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) launched a corporate governance initiative yesterday aimed at enhancing the efficiency of Cambodia’s private sector to strengthen the business climate and spur foreign investment and job creation, it said in a release. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia announced on Monday that it would set an annual interest rate ceiling of 18 percent for all microfinance institutions (MFIs), sparking concerns that lenders would stop offering smaller loans that often keep the most financially vulnerable afloat. ...

Two images on the back of the 500 riel banknote depict bridges, with the one on the left showing the Kingdom’s longest and most modern bridge, the Tsubasa (“Bird’s Wing”) Bridge linking Kandal and Prey Veng provinces. ...

Sathapana Bank has pre-emptively removed its signature golden lion logo from all 162 branches nationwide as the private bank aims to deflect government criticism and avoid confusion as being identified as a state-owned institution, a bank executive said yesterday. ...

Cambodia is handicapped by the dollarization of its economy in three ways, according to Kith Sovannarith, Deputy Director General of Banking Supervision at the National Bank of Cambodia. ...

ambodia’s 700,000 garment workers are among those most affected by exchange-rate costs. Their monthly salaries are paid in US dollars, but most of their daily transactions are in riels. Moreover, because they send – on average – about 30 percent of their salaries back to ...

In his office at the National Bank of Cambodia, Mr. Heng Bomakara recalls the early stages of the nation’s currency with fondness. He still remembers a time when coins were commonplace. First minted in aluminum and then later in steel, these coins are now a ...

Bred Banque Populaire – part of the second-largest banking group in France – officially launched operations in Cambodia yesterday after a ribbon-cutting ceremony at its headquarters, marking the first venture of a European bank in the Kingdom since the late 1990s. ...

In an effort to promote financial literacy to students in primary and secondary schools, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport yesterday officially launched the “Let’s Talk Money” comic book.​ ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday ordered microfinance institute (MFI) Prasac, one of the largest in Cambodia, to change its logo immediately for fear that the public may confuse it as representing the government. ...

Private sector industry leaders speaking at an investment conference yesterday in the capital railed on the high cost of electrical power, which they said was sapping their competitiveness, while state officials offered assurances that state-backed power generation schemes would soon bring prices down. ...

The central bank’s efforts to foster development of an interbank lending market appears to be taking off as the demand for negotiable certificates of deposits (NCDs) increased sharply last year, with the financial tool seeing wider usage among the Kingdom’s financial institutions. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) released its review of 2016 and outlook for 2017 this week, highlighting the continued large growth of the banking sector while warning that the Kingdom was still vulnerable to external economic factors. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) issued a prakas, or directive, last week instructing commercial banks and microfinance institutions to make out more riel loans to their customers, in a bid to promote the use of the national currency. The prakas, which took effect on Thursday, ...

The central banks of Cambodia and China are in talks to share customers’ credit reports in an effort to boost bilateral private investment, as a response to rising trade between the two countries. The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) director general Chea Serey told Khmer Times ...

The Central Bank announced on Monday that it exchanged 3.76 billion of old and worn Khmer riel banknotes (equivalent to $930,091) to new notes during its “Loving Riel Notes”, campaign which lasted five days during the Pchum Ben holiday. ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) yesterday held its second Liquidity-Providing Collateralised Operation (LPCO), making 40 billion riel ($9.89 million) available to financial institutions in an auction in which repurchase agreements, or repos, were signed for 8.4 billion riel ($2.07 million). ...

In light of global predictions of a slowdown in economic markets, led largely by China’s slackening growth, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday offered Cambodia advice on short and longer term measures to help maintain growth. It also warned that the country’s rapid credit growth ...

A recent study on the role of Cambodia’s moneychangers found that three private forex traders control two-thirds of the total demand for riel currency and exert more influence on foreign currency exchange rates than the central bank, raising the possibility of collusion in fixing rates. ...

In an effort to help small and medium-sized rice millers and exporters that are presently unable to provide suitable collateral to qualify for the government’s emergency $27 million rice loan, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has joined with the Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) to ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) will unveil its initial rates that banks and microfinance institutions (MFIs) will be able to use, as the NBC begins its liquidity-providing collateralized operation (LPCO) to boost the country’s riel liquidity, according to a senior bank official. ...

Cambodia’s central bank yesterday launched a weekly issuance of Negotiable Certificate of Deposits (NCD) with selling scheduled for every Wednesday – a move aimed at developing the interbank lending market by promoting a secondary market for the short-term interest-bearing certificates. ...

The Cambodia Rice Federation (CRF) has submitted a proposal to the government for the setting up of a joint executive financial committee to ensure that the $27 million emergency loan to rice millers to purchase paddy rice from farmers, in a bid to prevent rice ...

Eight months since announcing the biggest acquisition deal in the history of Cambodia’s financial sector, Thailand-based Bank of Ayudhya, also known as Krungsri Bank, has yet to receive approval for the landmark deal. In a statement released in January, Bank of Ayudhya announced its intention ...