News

Taiwan-based Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank Ltd plans to open a representative office in Cambodia, joining an increasing number of Taiwanese banks and garment industry investors in the Kingdom. Shanghai Commercial & Savings would enter a crowded sector, behind other Taiwanese-based financial intuitions [sic]. Hua ...

Outstanding loans and deposits made at Cambodian banks grew by 32 per cent and 28 per cent respectively at the end of March this year from a year earlier, according to data from the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC). The data from the NBC that the ...

Nearly nine out of 10 Cambodians have confidence in local financial institutions, a trend that stands in sharp contrast to Europe and the US, a poll published last week found. However, industry insiders question the results, as the Kingdom’s financial services are still under-developed. The poll ...

Cambodian migrant workers sent home $256 million last year, according to a report from a U.N. agency and the World Bank, which was released in Bangkok yesterday. The report from the bank and Rome-based International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), titled Sending Money Home to Asia, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday lashed out at the opposition party’s concerns over the interest rates charged by commercial banks to farmers. SRP lawmaker Yim Sovann said commercial banks in Cambodia charge customers very high interest rates, and said it is much higher than in other ...

The new 100,000 riel banknote depicting the late King Father Norodom Sihanouk is not just a pretty historical token. It will also help inject much needed cash into the economy, according to the National Bank of Cambodia. Although take-up will occur as older banknotes of other ...

A new microfinance institution (MFI), ORO Financecorp Plc, is set to open in Cambodia, according to the director-general of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC). Cambodia already has 35 registered MFIs, according to a recent report by the Cambodia Microfinance Association (CMA). Last week, the ...

Cambodia is considering offering sovereign bonds to raise more revenue for the national budget and move away from its dependence on overseas aid, a senior central bank official said Sunday. National Bank of Cambodia director-general Nguon Sokha said the Ministry of Economy and Finance was currently ...

The World Bank has warned that the rapid growth of lending by Cambodia’s Banks is still a concern, despite a recent slow-down in credit disbursals. “Credit growth, which has been driven largely by wholesale and retail financing, and starting in 2011 agriculture financing, has eased to ...

Cambodia’s banking industry recorded a slight increase in lending in the first two months of this year after a sharp rise last year, according to a consolidated data provided by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) on Saturday. The data showed that the kingdom’s 33 commercial ...

Cambodians, particularly young adults, are more often turning to banks to help them buy their homes, according to figures obtained from the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) yesterday. From $179 million in 2008, the total sum lent out to those buyers fell to $94.5 million ...

Having seen rapid growth since launching in Cambodia two years ago, the Bank of China (BoC) plans to expand its business operations here. According to a Xinhua report, BoC’s deputy governor Zhu Shuming said during his visit to Cambodia last Friday that its local operations have ...

The Bank of China is going to expand its business operations in Cambodia after it was launched here two years ago and seen rapid business growth, Zhu Shuming, visiting deputy governor of Bank of China, said Friday. Speaking at a meeting with Chea Chanto, governor of ...

The Council of Ministers on Friday approved a draft law amending three articles in the law on anti-money laundering and the financing of terrorism in order to make Cambodia more investment-friendly. Last month, the National Bank of Cambodia’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), law enforcement officials ...

Cambodia’s financial system appears to be shifting to excessive credit growth. The credit-to-GDP ratio has reached 37 percent, well above the low-income economies (LTCs). If credit growth were to continue at the current pace, by mid-2013 the ratio would exceed even the median for more ...

The UN’s assessment suggests that Cambodia is one of the top five countries that have made significant progress toward meeting its MDGs by 2015. The poverty rate has dropped dramatically from 47.50 percent in 1993 to 34.70 percent in 2004 and 23 percent in 2011, ...

WHILE investments from the Middle East into Cambodia are expected to increase over the next few years, the central bank here currently has no plans to launch Islamic banking services. Recent events like Qatar Airway’s Doha-Phnom Penh flights, which launched earlier this month, have been expected ...

Lending by commercial banks in Cambodia grew by more than one-third last year, according to figures provided by the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) yesterday. Banks lent out a total of $5.89 billion in 2012, compared with $4.39 billion in 2011, NBC figures show, meaning ...

Malaysia-based Hong Leong Bank, a subsidiary of Hong Leong Financial Group Berhad, is planning to open a branch in Cambodia sometime this year, which would make it the fourth Malaysian bank and the 33rd commercial bank in Cambodia’s crowded banking industry. Ngoun Sokha, director general of the ...

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) on Friday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the provision of technical support for Cambodia’s banking and financial supervision, according to a press release after the signing ceremony. “The MoU will ...

Loans and deposits at Cambodia’s 32 micro-finance institutions and four NGOs, as well as small loans from Acleda Bank, rose sharply last year compared with a year earlier. Industry players say this is a result of the Kingdom’s rapid economic improvement and political stability. Official data from ...

Cambodia’s inflation rate decelerated to 3 percent last year, down from 4.9 percent in a year earlier, Governor of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) Chea Chanto said Saturday. “This is a remarkable drop and the 3-percent rate last year is low and controllable,” he said ...

The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) is constructing a spacious new office building in Phnom Penh’s Sen Sok district, though officials at the central bank yesterday insisted there were no plans in store to vacate their current, storied headquarters on Norodom Boulevard. “The headquarters will remain where it is ...

Officials expressed optimism that microfinance institution Prasac would be able to attract more deposit placing clients, after the inauguration of its new headquarters in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Tompun district yesterday. Representatives from the National Bank of Cambodia  and Prasac expect the new 10-storey building to enhance ...