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Cambodia: NBC, Bank of China discuss cross-border payment
National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) and Bank of China on Wednesday discussed means to expand the cross-border payment between the two countries as well as develop transactions in other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), said a release.
The central banking officials discussed the possibility of expansion with the group of representatives of Bank of China Phnom Penh Branch and Bank of China Hong Kong Branch during a meeting that was attended by the technical officials of NBC. However, the release did not mention the specifics of the meeting.
NBC Director General of Central Banking Chea Serey met the team of China’s major commercial banking group’s foreign branch holding a universal banking business license, which can operate all kinds of banking products and services in Cambodia and internationally, said a release by NBC.
The meeting is “to explore cross-border payment cooperation and facilitate businesses and tourism from both countries,” said Serey, who is also the Assistant to Chea Chanto, Governor of the supervisory authority with a mandate to maintain price stability and foster sustainable economic growth.
Commissioned by NBC, the first publicly listed Acleda Bank Plc has geared up its process to develop a QR Code for cross-border payment among ASEAN member states after it has been used successfully by banking service consumers in both Cambodia and Thailand since February 2020.
The bank is developing a QR Code for cross-border payment between Cambodia and Vietnam and Cambodia and Laos where it has a subsidiary. Acleda Bank Lao Ltd still has the ability to pay its debts and its liquidity can cash flow levels are still in a good position even though Laos has faced jumping inflation and depreciation of its Lao Kip and conflict.
In Channy, President & Group Managing Director of Acleda Bank Plc, told Khmer Times yesterday that the new initiative by NBC’s central banking official Serey is a very positive sign for Cambodia’s development of coverage of its digital cross-border payment with the rest of the world even though it has been developing the system among ASEAN member states.
“I feel very happy when I heard that the central bank has built communication with those banks on the initiative as it would help expand the coverage of our cross-border payment. So, this is very good news. They would no longer need to exchange their national currency into other currencies as they would be able to make payment through their QR,” Channy said.
Even in an overseas mission, Channy, who is also an economist, pointed out further that the system would help, especially Chinese people who travel to Cambodia in making payment easier, while Cambodian people who travel to China would also get benefits from this digital payment system when it is launched officially, which his bank would support.
However, Mar Amara, Senior Executive Vice President & Group Chief Financial Officer of Acleda Bank Plc, told also Khmer Times yesterday that it is too early to do an analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of the initiative for the banking sector, but she was optimistic that there must be a strong reason from the central bank behind the new initiative.
According to Channy, currently Acleda Bank Plc has not only been developing its own banking and financial technology to serve its customers but also working with NBC and other government agencies to develop digital payment systems in the interest of the public as it has technical and expertise inputs.
“We have our in-house engineering teams who have been working with the central bank’s team. This is one of the reasons why we can launch the national QR code and we will continue working together to complete the first task. For the second task, we will develop the cross-border payment in each of the ten countries of the Asean,” he said, referring to the national QR Code to KHQR launched by NBC.
Source: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/501244403/nbc-bank-of-china-discuss-cross-border-payment/