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 sector. He added that from January until the end of June, loans and deposits at ANZ Royal were up 13 per cent compared with the same period a year ago.

“The commercial banking sector has had continued strong volume growth in the first half of 2013, but there has certainly been margin compression.” Knuckey said, referring to the fact that while the volume is up, profit margins have been smaller due to competition and the need to lower rates.

Knuckey said he expects “a pick-up in activity towards the last quarter of 2013 based on both seasonality and post-election expenditure and re-stocking”.

Acleda, the leading bank in Cambodia, disbursed $1.39 billion in loans at the end of June this year, up 22.6 per cent from the first half of last year.

Deposits at the bank grew 20 per cent year-on-year to reach $1.59 billion at the end of June.

So Phonnary, executive vice president of Acleda Bank, said that loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) are major contributors to the growth, followed by loans in agricultural activities, which increased 34.6 per cent at the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2011.

“Acleda Bank loans and deposits are growing and the market trend is still good for the second semester,” Phonnary said.

Union Commercial Bank (UCB), is also seeing increases in the first six months of 2013.

According to Yum Sui Sang, general manger of UCB, at the end of June, loans totalled $200 million and deposits stood at $271 million, representing a 44 per cent bump and a 24 per cent bump, respectively, from the first six months of 2012.

“We see more and more people are coming to invest in Cambodia. We have not only Cambodian clients but also foreign investors,” Yum said yesterday.

The most recent data from the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) revealed that loans provided by all Cambodian commercial banks reached about $6.14 billion, and deposits made at all commercial banks reached about $6.39 billion at the end of March this year versus the same period in 2012.