Coping with COVID: How the SME Bank helps

On May 20,2024, in Tokyo, H.E Dr. PHAN Phalla, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Chairman of the Board of Directors of SME Bank of Cambodia presided over and led the delegates that included the Board of Directors, and the senior management of the Bank. The delegation paid a visit to the Policy Research Institute (PRI), the Ministry of Finance, Japan; and the Micro Business and Individual Unit, Japan Finance Corporation (JFC-Micro).
The Cambodian financial market is developing rapidly and approaching the saturation stage. However, most commercial banks and MFIs are introducing both cash-flow and collateral-based lending. In general, they required real-estate property such as land and/or building to be served as collateral. According to the feedback from the market, some small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are not able to get loans from banks or MFIs due to collateral requirements.