Credit Bureau (Cambodia) Co Ltd (CBC) CEO Oeur Sothearoath. CBC
Credit Bureau (Cambodia) Co Ltd (CBC) on November 28 launched its “CBC Mobile” app to promote credit transparency, financial health, financial literacy and responsible credit management in the Kingdom’s nascent but crowded financial sector.
Incorporated on November 29, 2011, the CBC is an independent provider of financial information, analytical solutions and credit reporting services to the Kingdom’s financial institutions and consumers.
Once registered with the app, it allows users with a loan history to track their credit score, access their credit reports, and receive real-time credit monitoring alerts, the CBC said.
It said the app aims to fill a perceived service gap in Cambodia’s burgeoning credit and financial sectors.
CBC CEO Oeur Sothearoath said providing Cambodians with accurate and real-time knowledge of their credit information is a significant step toward maturing and strengthening the Kingdom’s financial sector.
He said: “Our most recent quarterly report showed that mortgage loans alone jumped from 18 per cent since the end of 2019 to $4.7 billion at the end of September this year.
“There is a need to make sure that as more Cambodians achieve upward socioeconomic mobility and borrow more money to grow their asset portfolios, they are also given the tools to responsibly manage and pay back their loans.
“The CBC Mobile app is about cultivating stable and sustainable growth through transparency.”
Prasac Microfinance Institution Ltd executive vice-president Say Sony lauded the app, saying it will help mainstream financial literacy and credit awareness to the people.
“While I believe Cambodians have shown great credit discipline, the app will allow them to improve upon their credit awareness and financial literacy through its professional management, as well as enable them to monitor their credit health and history and keep tabs so that they can practice better credit behaviour.
With the full consent of its clients, the app will provide financial institutions a credit-scoring system formulated in a way that is transparent to all stakeholders, which will serve as a roadmap in their decision-making processes, he said.
“The app will enable financial institutions and their clients to do business in a transparent manner and improve credit discipline in the country, and cultivate stable and sustainable growth through that transparency.
“But we do hope the CBC will consider offering an affordable price to clients and financial institutions,” said Sony.
As of December 31, there were 47 commercial banks operating in the Kingdom comprising 17 local banks, 17 subsidiaries and 13 foreign branch banks, according to the National Bank of Cambodia.
It has said there were 15 specialised banks, seven microfinance deposit-taking institutions (MDIs), 76 microfinance non-deposit-taking institutions, 245 rural credit institutions and 15 financial leasing companies.
Deposits and outstanding loans rose sharply by 25 and 26 per cent respectively last year over 2018, it said in its Macroeconomic and Banking Progress 2019 Report and 2020 Outlook.
Outstanding loans reached $19.6 billion and deposits at Cambodia’s seven MDIs reached $22 billion last year, it added.
