This ambitious strategy has helped position Cambodia’s financial sector for sustainable development, regional competitiveness, and greater financial inclusion, laying a resilient foundation to weather global economic shifts.
— Cambodia —
blueprint. transformation. resilience.
Mapping Cambodia’s Financial Future: A Strategic Update to Accelerate Sector Reform
"A thriving financial system must evolve beyond banking to unlock the full potential of capital markets, insurance, and pensions."
— Shaan Stevens, Legal, Policy and Regulatory Expert, GG International
Challenge
Following the success of Cambodia’s 2001–2010 Blueprint and subsequent FSDS updates, the Royal Government of Cambodia recognized the need to take stock of its financial sector development progress and rechart its strategic course to 2025. The challenge was twofold: to review progress under the existing strategy (2011–2020), and to craft a comprehensive new Financial Sector Development Strategy for 2016–2025, one that would extend reforms beyond banking to capital markets, insurance, pensions, leasing, consumer protection, financial inclusion, and regulatory resilience.
The Cambodian financial system, while experiencing strong growth—especially in banking and microfinance—still lagged in developing its non-bank sectors, risk-based supervision, financial infrastructure, and legal frameworks. Furthermore, the dominance of the U.S. dollar, weak collateralization through informal land titling, and limited investor confidence in capital markets were all critical impediments to long-term financial stability and inclusivity.
Strategy
Under the leadership of E-Gen Consulting, and with technical support from GG International’s senior experts, including Shaan Stevens (Legal/Regulatory), Des Crane (Audit), Russell Leith (Insurance), Jim Swander (Leasing) and Matte Birchler (Policy), the team conducted a deep diagnostic review of the entire Cambodian financial landscape.
This strategic update involved:
- A wide-ranging analysis of banking, microfinance, and new areas such as leasing, AML/CFT, financial leasing, and insurance supervision.
- A close review of cadastral systems and the need for robust collateral to support secure lending.
- Identification of legal and regulatory gaps—particularly in capital markets law, insurance supervision, and financial consumer protection.
- Mapping Cambodia’s progress toward ASEAN financial integration and WTO commitments.
- Consultation with over a dozen ministries, the National Bank of Cambodia, SECC, MEF, and international partners such as ADB, IMF, and the World Bank.
The team proposed a detailed action plan covering:
- The expansion of microfinance and mobile banking to underserved populations.
- Building a legal framework for collective investment schemes, REITs, and trust operations.
- A national strategy on financial inclusion and consumer protection.
- Formal crisis management and early warning systems for financial stability.
- Enabling dedollarization through the strategic promotion of the riel and enhanced monetary tools
Transformation
The FSDS 2016–2025, officially approved by Cambodia’s Technical Working Group in May 2016, became the government’s national roadmap for reforming and integrating the financial sector. It aligned donor programs and development partner contributions around clearly defined reform priorities and gave shape to Cambodia’s ambition for a market-based, inclusive, and internationally aligned financial system.
Key impacts included:
- The strengthening of prudential regulations in line with Basel Core Principles.
- The launch of a legal framework for corporate bond markets and capital market intermediaries.
- Development of a national identity-linked credit bureau.
- The introduction of regulatory oversight for leasing and non-deposit-taking financial institutions.
- Formal establishment of a crisis management framework among NBC, MEF, and SECC.
- Acceleration of dedollarization policies by mandating riel use in government transactions and promoting riel-denominated products.
- A renewed focus on investor protection, AML/CFT compliance, and transparent dispute resolution.
(FSDS) 2016-2025