ACLEDA Bank

ACLEDA Bank Plc. is a public limited company, formed under the Banking and Financial Institutions Law of the Kingdom of Cambodia based in Phnom Penh, with 258 offices covering all provinces, as well as 41 in Laos, and 6 in Myanmar. ACLEDA started out in 1993 when it began providing micro credits to war victims. By now it is Cambodia's major commercial bank. ACLEDA had more than $3,885 million in total assets as of December 31, 2015, and more than $2,616 million in deposits, with over $2,405 million in loans outstanding. According to the National Bank of Cambodia, ACLEDA Bank is the largest domestic commercial bank in terms of total assets and number of clients, with more than 1.7 million depositors as of December 31, 2015.

The bank is headed by President and CEO, In Channy, who is one of the original 28 members of the organization. Channy joined the company in 1992 as a loan officer while the bank was still a UN-funded microfinance project. He now serves as Chief Executive Officer of the company, and also serves as Vice-chairman of the International Business Chamber of Cambodia.

With the ILO and UNDP as godparents, ACLEDA was established in January 1993, as a national NGO for micro and small enterprise development and credit by a group of founders listed below. From its earliest days, it enjoyed the support of a number of major international development agencies whose contributions are gratefully acknowledged in ACLEDA's 'Roll of Honour'. Two factors, namely the expansion of its network to cover all of Cambodia’s provinces and towns and its ability to operate at a profit to ensure its sustainability, led both its board and international partners to conclude that it should be transformed into a commercial bank. This would not only provide a secure regulatory framework lacking under its previous status but would also enable it to enlarge its range of funding options (e.g., equity injection, taking public deposits, obtaining commercial interbank loans) to support the expansion of its core micro-finance business. With assistance from USAID, MPDF/IFC and UNDP—to name a few—a three-year program for transformation commenced in 1998 which culminated in the granting of a specialized banking license in October 2000.

Under the process, the original NGO has transferred its assets and on-lent its liabilities (long term loans from donors) to the new ACLEDA Bank. In return, it has received 44.91% of the bank’s capital of US$4 million; the ACLEDA Staff Association (‘ASA’), a trust established to give its staff an equity interest, has purchased 6.09% and the remaining 49% has been taken up in equal parts by four foreign investors, namely the International Finance Corporation (a division of the World Bank), DEG (Germany), FMO and Triodos Bank (The Netherlands). It is intended that ACLEDA Bank will seek a listing on a stock exchange at some time in the future.