Cambodia’s largest bank, Acleda Bank, announced yesterday that it was infusing $40 million to add to its current capital of $226 million, as it looks to expand domestic and foreign operations and keep up with the rising demand for credit in the Kingdom.

In Channy, president and group managing director at Acleda, said this round of capital increase will finance branch expansions locally and internationally and the deployment of their electronic banking infrastructure.

“In 2015, domestically, here in Cambodia, we will increase our ATM network to up 250 and install 2,500 POS terminals.

And we plan to open around 260 offices and increase staff numbers by 11,642 employees,” he said.

“We are also embarking on a substantial upgrade of our management information system to cope with the growth of the banking and financial sector and in particular support our regional expansion.”

In June last year, the bank injected $39 million of profits back into its operations, instead of paying out dividends to shareholders.

Yesterday marks the twelfth time Acleda has added to its capital, which now stands at around $266 million in registered capital.

The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank, and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) announced in April that they will provide Acleda Bank with a $110 million loan to finance rural and micro-businesses, especially agricultural enterprises.

Acleda has seen increasing net profit after tax over the last few years – from just over $475,168 in 2001 to $82.2 million in 2014.

Currently, the bank has 255 branches and offices throughout Cambodia, 41 branches and offices in Laos and six in Myanmar, with the total assets over $3.642 billion at the end of May 2015.

Cambodia has 35 commercial banks and nine specialised bank by the end of 2014 with total loan portfolios of more than $9 billion.

This marks a sharp increase of around 30 per cent compare to ending December of 2013, according to the annual report from National Bank of Cambodia.