The Securities and Exchange Commission of Cambodia (SECC) on January 5 approved in principle a handful of applications for licences.

In a press release on the minutes of an SECC meeting led by chairman and Minister of Economy and Finance Aun Pornmoniroth, the securities regulator said it had approved in principle Moongunghwa (Cambodia) Trust Plc’s application for a trustee licence.

VMoney Co Ltd received in-principle approval as a derivative broker, while Amara Capital Plc and HCFM Fund Management Plc have been approved in principle as fund managers.

Phnom Penh Derivative Exchange Plc has been given the in-principle nod to trade additional products.

SECC director-general Sou Socheat told The Post that the greater involvement of the companies would make the market further grow step-by-step from year-to-year.

He said: “Now we have more interested players and this market is growing a little bit, thus what we need to do next is to strengthen public trust to make the market work better.”

While the Kingdom’s securities market has made substantial progress in its over a decade-long history, 2020 marked significant headway for the nascent sector.

To date, SECC has licensed and granted accreditation to eight companies as fund managers, 10 as trustees and three under its “registrar, securities transfer agent and paying agent” category.

To boot, five central counterparties, 31 derivatives brokers and 94 derivatives agents have been permitted by SECC to carry out derivatives trading – with there now being some 4,744 trading accounts.