ACLEDA Bank Plc president and group managing director In Channy speaks to reporters on Friday. SUPPLIED
As financial technology (fintech) in banking and financial institutions continues evolving and gaining public confidence, ACLEDA Bank Plc is launching a plan to encourage its customers to become more digital savvy in 2022.
Speaking to reporters at a meeting with branch directors in Preah Sihanouk province on April 29, bank president and group managing director In Channy said the Covid-19 pandemic raised the use of fintech, with the number of digital transactions steadily increasing.
Up till January, digital transactions were around 94 per cent.
Between 2020 and 2021 amid rising infections and lockdowns, ACLEDA’s digital subscribers climbed rapidly.
As of March 31, 2022, the bank’s number of digital system registered users was more than 2.3 million while active usage was charted by an average of one million transactions per day.
“In January, I said the number of ACLEDA’s digital transactions through digital banking was about 94 per cent. In 2022, we want to push that number to 97 per cent for all operations.
“We really want more than three million of our customers to sign up [to use] our digital systems [via the app]. Currently, only around 70,000 customers have yet to sign up,” he said.
In 2021, central bank National Bank of Cambodia’s (NBC) interbank mobile payment platform – known as Bakong – recorded 5.7 million transactions.
Out of 5.7 million transactions, 1.2 million transactions were in riel valued at 1.7 trillion riel ($420 million) and 4.5 million transactions were in US dollars with a total value of $1.9 billion.
This reflects the rapid growth of the financial sector in Cambodia, according to NBC’s 2021 annual report.
Bakong has registered 55 member institutions since the platform was launched on October 28, 2020, with 27 institutions having officially launched it and 28 others preparing to study and mediate the connection to the system.
The central bank system has 254,000 accounts of registered customers who are using the app so far.
It plays an important role in promoting cross-institutional transactions and boosting financial inclusion, as well as enabling Cambodia to integrate its payment systems with the region to facilitate remittances and cross-border trade payments, the report added.
ACLEDA’s Channy said that as digital transactions rise, the need to increase human resources might decline.
Regarding the operation in 2022, In Channy said ACLEDA has seen significant signs of growth, with bank loans rising eight per cent in the first four months compared to the corresponding period last year.
