News

Cambodia and Malaysia on August 11 officially launched cross-border payments through the National Bank of Cambodia’s (NBC) Bakong system with Maybank, enabling faster and more convenient real-time money transfer between the two countries. ...

Last month, Cambodia’s nascent yet rapidly expanding banking sector saw the new arrival of Phillip Bank through the acquisition of Hwang DBS Commercial Bank by Singapore’s Philip Capital in a $40 million deal. The number of banks in the country has more than doubled since 2005, ...

The Singapore-based Phillip Capital Group has purchased a Malaysian-owned Hwang-DBS Commercial Bank in Cambodia for 40 million U.S. dollars and rebranded it as Phillip Bank on Thursday, a bank’s chief said. Phillip Bank’s chairman Lim Hua Min said the Phillip Capital Group, which is an Asian ...

Cambodia’s credit sector is expanding rapidly with the central bank saying now is the time to start infusing the market with riel and begin a process of de-dollarization in the country’s economy. But as the growth of dollarized loans outstrips those in riel, disbursing credit ...

Cambodia’s banking sector has reported a 9.3-percent increase in lending in the first six months of the year, according to the figures from the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) on Sunday. The figures showed that the kingdom’s 35 commercial banks had lent a total of 8.09 ...

Lending by Cambodia’s commercial banks rose by 6 percent while deposits grew by 10 percent in the first quarter of this year, a National Bank of Cambodia (NBC)’s report said Tuesday. The report said the country’s 34 commercial banks had lent a total of 7.87 billion ...

ANZ Royal Bank and local microfinance institution Hattha Kaksekar Limited (HKL) on Monday entered into the first partnership of its kind in Cambodia in a bid to bring together clients from either side of the financial spectrum. Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding at ...

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 ...

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 ...

Financial records the Global Fund requested for its investigation into widespread corruption in health grants to Cambodia were withheld and censored by grant recipients, the probe found, suggesting a systematic attempt to cover up wrongdoing. Out of a total of $220.3 million worth of expenses the ...

The price of food spiked this month, and Cambodia’s low-paid garment workers are feeling the effects. Meat, vegetables, toothbrushes, beauty accessories and even the plastic bags they get packed in have all seen a sharp bump up in price this month, some items by as much ...

Cambodia’s finance sector should increase insurance accessibility to its smallest lenders to help protect against indebtedness at times of disaster, an industry expert said at a conference in Phnom Penh yesterday. Speaking at the Hotel Cambodiana to an audience of industry representatives on rural entrepreneurship, Jaime ...

Cambodia’s banking sector has seen 17 percent rise in lending in the first nine months of the year, the central bank’s figures showed Thursday. The kingdom’s 34 commercial banks had provided a total loan of 6.89 billion U.S. dollars to customers by the end of September ...

More than $600 million flooded out of Cambodia’s entire banking system during the third quarter of this year, as fears of post-election chaos set off panic and mass withdrawals, new figures from the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) reveal. The figures, obtained yesterday, were the first ...

Chief Cambodia Specialized Bank, a subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based brokerage firm, will begin operations in Cambodia next month, its management said on Monday. Sokun Chakriya, head of marketing and sales at Chief Cambodia, said the bank aims to increase access to finance in Cambodia’s agricultural ...

Cambodia’s inflation rate has accelerated to 2.9 percent in the first six months of the year, up from 1.8 percent over the same period last year, according to a report of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) on Wednesday. “The rate, below 3 percent, is low ...

The U.S. tax collection agency is this week training Cambodian bank staff as well as anti-corruption officials, police, judges and prosecutors in how to investigate financial activity to detect wrongdoing, officials said Monday. U.S. Embassy spokesman Sean McIntosh said the program, called Intermediate Financial Investigations Training, ...

In 2010, the Ha Tien Vegas Entertainment Resort, a casino investment on Kampot province’s border with Vietnam that included luxury karaoke rooms and suites, launched with high hopes of attracting Vietnamese gamblers. At the end of December, Ha Tien Vegas closed down. To the north, in ...

Economic diversification is attracting substantial sums of FDI from China and beyond. Rich in history and culture and blessed with wonderful natural and human resources that are driving its impressive economic growth and attracting record sums of foreign direct investment (FDI), the Kingdom of Cambodia offers ...

Deposit and loans at major commercial banks have continued to climb over the first half of this year, industry officials say. Grant Knuckey, chief executive officer of ANZ Royal Bank, said yesterday that ANZ continues to see strong growth in trade finance led by the agricultural ...

Mizuho Bank, one of Japan’s largest banks, opened a representative office here Monday thanks to increasing interest in Cambodia by Japanese investors, a bank official said. To date, Cambodia has five foreign banks’ representative offices, 34 commercial banks, seven specialized banks and 37 microfinance institutions, ...

A new Malaysian player in Cambodia’s expanding banking sector aims to capture the “emerging affluent” with its mobile and online services. Malaysian-based Hong Leong Bank will begin operating in Phnom Penh today, with a branch on Street 214. Joe Farrugia, CEO of Hong Leong Bank Cambodia, ...

Hong Leong Bank Bhd’s (HLB) subsidiary Hong Leong Bank (Cambodia) PLC (HLBC) has clinched a banking licence for its operations in the country from the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC). HLBC, a commercial bank with a capital of RM119.25mil, would begin operations on July 8, the ...

As volatility strikes Asian markets in anticipation of the US Federal Reserve winding down quantitative easing – the practice of injecting money into the economy – the National Bank of Cambodia says the Kingdom will remain largely insulated thanks to an investment market still in ...